RIAA to Sue You Now

An anonymous reader writes "MSNBC reports that apparently the music industry feels so satisfied with going after file swapping software makers that they want to sue the pants off the file swappers themselves. Of course, you'll need to be a big fish with lots of illegal music to get their attention." This is what they should have done in the first place- go after the people who are actually doing it instead of making P2P seemingly illegal.

My response to the RIAA:

[InnereNacht]

Subject:
A special humour game.

Body:
This is a special humour game
This game is my first work.
You're the first player.
I hope you would like it.

Jokes on them!

[st0rmshad0w]

"they want to sue the pants off the file swappers themselves"

I'm not wearing any pants!

Big Fish, eh?

[The_Shadows]

Of course, you'll need to be a big fish with lots of illegal music to get their attention."

That's good news for all of us humans out here, but what about our aquatic File-swapping friends? Unite with our fishy friends and protect their rights to music!

Re:Meh.

[Anonymous Coward]

then call their ISP and hope that whoever answers the phone is an idiot?

Have you called your ISP lately??

just imagine the court docket

[Patrick13]

"The United States versus KazaaLite User "SpankyPants27", AKA 64.123.25.14"

Re:Jokes on them!

[SirSlud]

According to RIAA's assesment of human behavior, thats not surprising. After all, once you discovered a suitable, easy and convenient alternative to paying for pants (that dangerous technology called nudism), you'd be a fool not to buy pants unless held at subpoena-point!

Here's where it gets funny.

[wrinkledshirt]

Years from now, law students are going to have to remember the names of groundbreaking cases that formed the latest incarnation of IP law...

RIAA v. l33t d0Wn104d3r
RIAA v. i oWnz j00
RIAA v. cr4pfl00d3r

Can't wait to see how those textbooks handle it...

Re:Jokes on them!

[beanyk]

I'm not wearing any pants!

News at eleven.

Holy Bat-Lawyers, Batman!

[Robinn]

It looks like the RIAA has decided to attack innocent file swappers! If someone doesn't stop them, the lawyers will take over!

Lets sue them back...

[LordYUK]

I am SURE that there is a law regarding noise pollution... and I am positive most of you have heard the latest Booby Spears and N Stink songs at least in passing...
:)

Re:Holy Bat-Lawyers, Batman!

[Batmann]

Sounds like trouble to me. And if I'm not mistaken, the Joker [riaa.org] is behind this...

Wrong file type

[GuyMannDude]

I'm not wearing any pants!

No, no. They're talking about suing the pants off people who file-swap music MP3s. Not porno AVIs! :)

GMD

Six simple steps to win the lawsuit

[Big Toe]

1. Notified of lawsuit against you
2. Drive to local music store
3. Buy CDs of songs downloaded
4. Show up to court
5. Laugh in face of RIAA as they accuse you of stealing what you already own
6. Yawn.

Sue me for what???

[starX]

I just graduated from college with a liberal arts degree. If they want massive amounts of money from me, they're just going to have to get in line and wait their turn.

It's All Thanks to Slashdot Polls...

[da3dAlus]

"Of course, you'll need to be a big fish with lots of illegal music to get their attention."

Gee, I dunno where the RIAA would get any ideas [slashdot.org] about how much disk space that we use [slashdot.org] to store our MP3's [slashdot.org].

Note to RIAA: "If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane."

No, what's funny is...

[JoshWurzel]

that I'll be thinking about this non-stop as I take my practice LSAT exam this weekend.

Re:libraries are also the targets

[Crusty Oldman]

I keep wondering how much longer it will take for somebody out there to realize that the author of the copyright clause in the US Constitution was also the guy that created the first free book lending library.

Oh shit! How we gonna mod this one down?

Re:Meh.

[tHiNk411]

i work at an ISP and when people call up saying "I traced the ISP doing this to me it came up belonging to you guys" I do this:
1. Mute.
2. Laugh my ass off.
3. Tell them to email [e-mail]
4. Delete email just sent to abuse.
I can't wait for the RIAA to call me.

Re:My response to the RIAA:

[Greenrider]

Or better yet:

Subject:
Metallica - Fade to Black.mp3.vbs

Body:
Hi RIAA! How are you?
I send you this file in order to have your advice.
Does this MP3 violate the home recording act?
See you later. Thanks.

New name for a P2P application

[tcc]

SeeUsueMe

Re:About time

[zootread]

Finally, in neither case, is the person downloading the file, mp3 or html, going to be committing a crime, because how the hell do they know if the file is illegal or not? We *might* be able to argue that they had a reasonable suspicion that the files were illegal copies, but the primary guilt is still with the person offering them up for download.

True enough. There are many times when I do a P2P search for "amateur" and just download every result and sort them out as I get them. I end up having to delete a lot of copyrighted non-amateur porn because people mislabel files all the time.

Re:Here's where it gets funny.

[Chemical]

Actually, a dot-bomb company tried to do something similar to this. PrintCafe attempted to subpoena Pud from Fucked Company [fuckedcompany.com] to obtain the identities of "Ex-DLJ, sucky-me, and idiot!", whom they were going to sue for posting defamatory comments on the anonymous Fucked Company message boards.

You can see the whole saga here [fuckedcompany.com], including all the crap Pud received from PrintCafe's lawyers. It even says "PrintCafe Inc. v. Ex-DLJ, sucky-me, and idiot!" on the documents. Funny shit.

Re:Here's where it gets funny.

[NeMon'ess]

RIAA v. FUCKRIAAUPTHIERSTUPIDASSES
RIAA v. HILARYROSENISACUNTIMFISTINGUPTOMYELBOW
RIAA v. JACKVALENTITAKESMYCDSUPHISASSHOLE

Fun for the whole court.

Re:Advantage of Gnutella

[Shadarr]

If you're using Gnutella, you're protected by the fact that nobody can successfully download any of the files you have "shared". This makes the search results more like a web page listing the CD's you own, and thus you aren't actually distributing copywrite material. Kazaa has no such protection.