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Is 2008 to be RIAA’s death knell?

by Steven Hodson on December 29, 2007 · Comments

Giveing the RIAA a legal smack down I realize lots of folks have been predicting the imminent demise of the RIAA and the music industry since the inception of Napster and yet both are still here and still treating legitimate customers as criminals - or at least as potential criminals. Sure individuals have tried to fight the RIAA’s questionable lawsuits and SWAT like tactics but there has yet to be a smack down of any substance to put them in their place.

With the latest tactic by the RIAA to target universities, colleges and the students at these bastions of higher education they have tried everything from manipulating Congress into creating laws forcing educational institutions to play along with the RIAA or have funding cut to threatening wholesale lawsuits against students.

Well while Congress might be waffling on helping out the RIAA because after all they don’t want to endanger their own cash flow it maybe the students themselves that will be the harbingers of the end to the RIAA threats and possibly setting legal precedents along the way.

According to a post on p2pnet.net a small university legal clinic in Maine are taking up the fight in lawsuits being brought against fellow students. Under guidance from the clinic director and University of Maine associate professor Deirdre Smith law students Hannah Ames and Lisa Chmelecki are representing the students being sued.

If successful this move by the legal clinic could pave the way for other university law students to fight back against these actions by the RIAA providing both protection for their students, a low cost method for the universities to get out from under the RIAA threats and provide the students with some real world heavy weight legal experience.

Now if you think that these law students might not be up to the legal shenanigans that can go on the real world this is what Ray Beckerman; the lawyer behind Recording Industry vs The People, said to p2pnet.net:

An experienced practicing lawyer, I reviewed the brief prepared by student attorneys Hannah Ames and Lisa Chmelecki, under professor Smith’s supervision, and these young people did a bang-up job in exposing the fact that the RIAA has no case,

If this succeeds and snowballs through other universities it could be some interesting times ahead.

Listening to: Divino - Visions of Love - Stellar Voyage

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Tagged as: law students, music, RIAA

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  • me
    This RIAA crap has got to stop. I say we all rip our CD collections to a hard drive, then stage public crushing of them-piles of RIAA member company CDs that are then delivered by the truckload and dumped on the front lawns of all 26 members of the RIAA board of directors.
  • And that would accomplish....? They're not concerned with symbolic gestures. They just hand everyone subpeona's for the ripping and whistle a merry tune as they sauntered off. The only thing that will stop this is for the laws on copyright and licensing to be brought up to date with the times, and for people to realize that 'FREE' isn't always a good thing.
  • Are you actually trying to DEFEND the RIAA here, by blaming users for bringing the RIAA on themselves ? ?
  • I'm simply saying that those who DO choose to illegally download, regardless of the motivation or justification, may have to change their behavior a little. Every movie/album not bought is a money out of the artists pocket, regardless of what you've heard. The industry needs to change, too, but the end users cannot be held totally blameless for years of stealing.
  • Sure enough, every movie/album not sold is money out of someone's pocket, but if you talk to ANYONE not directly connected to the RIAA, it's been proven time and again that there is NO proof that media downloads have ANY negative influence on sales, and downloading media off the internet is NOT STEALING. Quite contrarily, even record company executives are starting to admit that sales are UP, thanks in part to the increased circulation caused by their music being downloaded. The same goes for movies. Most people who download media still buy as much, or even more media than they did, and it's about time that the people accept this little fact.
  • Scott
    It's strange that studies which show that record sales are down as a result of piracy are "propaganda" and those that show that record sales are up are "fact."
  • well,
    you suck.
  • FU RIAA
    I am so pissed off at the IRAA that I will never buy anything again until they stop these tactics. That is not an excuse for stealing. It's just how it is. F the RIAA. If we all stop buying music the funds will dry up and the law suits will stop.
  • Well, such idealism usually belongs to the eye of the beholder, but it's usually fairly certain that whatever's "pro money" and directed at screwing people out of their hard earned cash, is the 'bad thing' :)
  • Steve
    I predict that next year will be the year that everyone predicts the RIAA will die.
  • You could be right about that :)
  • Great article. Glad to see grassroots litigation can work for people like students who don't often have the resources.
  • Go Law Students! :D
  • John S
    remember too that the RIAA says its stealing even if you buy the cd and rip it to your ipod to listen to on the go and leave that precious cd at home
  • John S
    so are you saying everyone who downloads doesnt buy it as well to have a possibly better quality copy? cause that cant be right. also maybe those that downloaded it didnt like it and so if they had the chance otherwise legally to preview may have not bought it so therefore its still no money lost. only reason its money lost is cause people get to preview the CRAP thats out and decide they dont want to put money out for it so therefore theyre not tricked into buying something they dont like
  • That's the point that never stops irritating me. If a 12 year-old uses LimeWire to download 100 albums during xmas break, even though there is no way this kid would have had the 1500usd to buy them, the RIAA still says they "lost" 1500 bucks.


    Bullshit. The numbers that the RIAA and MPAA toss around are meaningless.
  • Robbybobby
    Since when are record sales up? There has been a steady decline over the past few years. What is this being blamed on? DOWNLOADING. Seriously. I used to buy atleast 1 CD a week (I have a colection close to 1000) when I didn't own a computer. Since I bought a computer and I am able to download, I buy a CD maybe once every 6 months ( and it's usually when I'm travelling and it's something local).
  • Well, then you are one of the minority of people that simply refuses to pay good money for good things, if they can possibly be gotten free. I have downloaded thousands of movies and CD's in my life, but I also have hundreds of legally bought full-priced (over-priced) movies and CD's as well. The good stuff I buy, the crap, I throw away. Most downloaders do the very same.

    And talk to record executives around the world. Music sales are up in 2007, after several years of shit music being released.
  • I buy new movies when they come out at Walmart for $13.99, that can hardly be called overpriced? I never understood people who went to places like FYI and Best Buy for their movies, they are indeed overpriced there.

    But there really are no excuse to buy over priced music anymore either, you can buy each track online for 33cent at emusic, and I seldom enjoy more than 2-3 tracks on a CD.

    What I am saying is I totally agree with you here.
  • Well, not all of us are lucky enough to be Americans, so $13.99 for a DVD is no more than a wet dream for me :D

    A new DVD or Music CD here in Iceland costs $48, and the somewhat older and 'cheaper' ones are "only" $32.
    If I find decent (very unlikely) cheapie DVD's (imported from Denmark or something, 4:3 Fullframe or 16:9 if I'm lucky, Stereo sound and no decent subtitles) I'm paying a meager $16, but music CD's really don't go below the $20 mark.

    As for eMusic, I'd never heard of it before. I don't buy DRM'd music (iTunes can go to hell), but I'll sure try eMusic out. Thanks for telling me about it.

    The same goes for music
  • Just tried eMusic... it's rubbish. Very bad selection of songs. Seems to be oriented towards the 'older' customer base, with a very poor selection of newer music.
  • Read my reaction to this article on
    http://3xw.us/?p=45
  • Let us hope -- nay, let us pray -- success to the law students of Maine!
  • Chris
    Eventually, when profits in music industry totally vanish, the RIAA will cease to get adequate funding from the labels and will stop hiring lobbyists in Washington. At that point, things will change. The RIAA is just a collective trade organization owned by the individual labels as partners. It costs a lot of money to keep the RIAA going, and it WILL dry up eventually, along with their influence in Washington.
  • I guess the whole student thing could work...Though the RIAA will most likely die because as music goes digital the need for such an organization decreases.
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