This story appeared on the Dimension Music site:
http://www.dmusic.com/news/news.php?id=5852
RIAA to go after AudioGalaxy, Consumers
by *Simon S. Foust on Oct 08, 2001
Yesterday the United States began bombing Afghanistan. Today the RIAA
continues its "fight" against piracy. Many people feel the RIAA's
recent activities seem in poor taste, given the circumstances in New
York, the US, and abroad. Is the RIAA trying to sneak legislation
through the doors while the nations head is turned?
Answer: Hell yes.
Dotcomscoop has reported on the RIAA going after AudioGalaxy.
The Register has reported on a story DMusic had firstŠ last Thursday,
as a matter of fact, that originated from a high-ranking RIAA member.
The source revealed that a secret meeting took place last Thursday,
involving several key players. The topic of the meeting: Defeating
'Piracy'. We did not post this story because we did not want harm to
come to the source. We thought it possible that the RIAA might figure
out who the source was. I can't tell you much more about that, but I
can report on what has been made public already. (By the way, what
has been made public is only the tip of the iceberg - this should
scare you. In all seriousness, I'm scared right now.)
First let us look over the roster of people at this secret meeting:
Hillary Rosen - RIAA Chief
Steve Heckler - Sony Music
Strauss Zelnick - BMG
Edgar Bronfman - Universal
Gerald Levin - AOL Time-Warner
Ken Berry - EMI
Leonardo Chiariaglione - SDMI Chair (Leaving Soon)
Fritz Hollings - Senator
Ted Stevens - Senator
Michael Eisner - Disney CEO
Jack Valenti - President, MPAA
Andy Grove - Intel CEO
Lou Gerstner - IBM
Yoishi Morishita - CEO Matsushita
Tsutomo Kawata - CEO Toshiba
Jay Berman - IFPI Chair
I want you to notice that to senators were present. That in itself
should scare the hell out of you, once you hear what was discussed.
I don't want to reveal anything that hasn't been revealed already,
for fear that our source might get *wacked* -- and I'm not even
joking there. So here are some quotes from The Register:
"The meeting's keynote was made by RIAA head Hillary Rosen. The drop
in CD sales can be directly attributed to "the new generation of file
sapping services", she said, and promised that her organization would
pursue the companies behind them vigorously.
What does that entail? According to Rosen, there are a number of
tactics the RIAA will employ. First, she says, 'we are working with
sound card manufacturers to implement technology that will block the
recording of watermarked content in both digital and analogue form'.
That will nobble attempts to rip and distribute encoded material, but
what about existing files and CDs? Step forward PC manufacturers,
whose help the RIAA hopes to recruit to "find ways to block the
spread of legacy content".
'The failure of the CPRM specification to be applied to computer hard
drives was a giant step back for the publishing, music and
entertainment industry,' said Rosen, and promised to 'develop a new
specification that accomplishes what CPRM would have done.'
In the meantime, the RIAA will be lobbying 'our friends in
Washington' for tougher laws that target 'the hackers and
file-sharers themselves', so clearly if you thought the controversial
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was harsh enough already,
think again. Indeed, the RIAA wants legislators to block any loophole
in that law which can allow file-sharers to continue to distribute
copyright material.
For example, Rosen wants the protection granted by the DMCA to ISPs
from the infringing actions of their subscribers to be removed. If
the RIAA gets its way, ISPs will be as guilty of copyright violation
as their subscribers. 'Because of the magnitude of the problem, ISPs
can no longer be shielded from the wrath of the law,' shrieked Rosen
righteously.
Worryingly, legislation designed to protect computer users' privacy
are likely to be tackled too. Disney chief Michael Eisner pointed out
after Rosen's keynote that "privacy laws are our biggest impediment
to us obtaining our objectives".
So too is the ongoing ease with which music recorded on today's CDs
can be ripped onto listeners' hard drives. Rosen pointed out that
trials of anti-rip technologies, such as Midbar's Cactus and
Macrovision's SafeAudio have been 'extremely successful', though
we're not as confident as she is of the claim that 'no one has been
able to circumvent them'.
We'll leave the last, chilling word to Sony Music Entertainment's
Steve Heckler: "Once consumers can no longer get free music, they
will have to buy the music in the formats we choose to put out." You
have been warned.
I will include one piece of information that The Register did not.
And perhaps this is the scariest quote of all. It comes from the
mouth of none other than Hilary Rosen herself.. and she said, "Once
we stem piracy, we will be able to raise prices in order to regain
lost profits.."
This information should make you feel two things in particular: sick,
and scared.
I will keep you informed on this RIAA source as much as I can.
Many people have pointed out the timing of the RIAA's recent
activities. One can only wonder if the RIAA has any sense of the
bigger picture in this time where our country needs Americans to act
like Americans. It seems that while every else is donating blood,
money and time; when people are raising their flags, kneeling to
pray, spending time with loved ones; as we watch the bombs dropping
on Afghanistan; and perhaps the most difficult, as we try to go on
living our lives in the aftermath of perhaps the greatest tragedy in
American history, the RIAA is sitting around trying to figure out how
to screw music lovers.
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