Free Speech Zone: 2+2=5

Record companies don't share money extorted from file-sharing fans with artists

The record industry has sued over 20,000 music fans to "protect artists' copyrights." But they haven't turned over any of the money to artists (of course, they never forked over any of the money from my.mp3.com, Grokster, Napster, etc).

A contingent of prominent artist managers claims that little to none of that money has trickled down to their clients. They are now considering legal action.

"Artist managers and lawyers have been wondering for months when their artists will see money from the copyright settlements and how it will be accounted for," said lawyer John Branca, who has represented Korn, Don Henley, and The Rolling Stones, among others. "Some of them are even talking about filing lawsuits if they don't get paid soon."

Link (via /.)

It's hard to know whose side to be on in this issue, assholes like Korn, Don Henley, and The Rolling Stones, who are more interested in music as a commodity than anything else, who destroyed Napster and who think you're a criminal if you ever listen to their music without them making something off it, and the corporate scumbuckets at the RIAA who are arresting teenagers for downloading TV theme songs instead of just legally recording them off the TV with their VCRs or cassette tape recorders.

Recording devices are protected by law, you can tape anything that's copyrighted as long as it's for personal use. You can tape TV and radio to your heart's content and even make copies and pass them around, but if you use a computer, well, thank the RIAA for convincing the Supreme Court of the United States that computers aren't recording devices, therefore exempt from all traditional definitions of fair use. Which brings up the real issue, whatayuh gonna do when the Supreme Court makes a decision that's provably and ridiculously wrong, incorrect, just a lie, like they ruled that 2+2=5 and that's that, any arithmetic teacher in the US who dares to teach a student that 2+2=4 can be arrested with an automatic conviction because the Supreme Court has already ruled in the matter, you can't go any higher up, guilty as charged for speaking the truth because only a retard, a lawyer for the RIAA, or the Supreme Court of the United States doesn't know that computers are recording devices.

You can record anything with impunity, you're protected, as long as you're actually using antiquated technology like tape or standard CDs, hell, you can make laserdiscs galore of all your favorite tunes and pass them out as party favors and nobody would give a shit. But do the same thing with a computer and you're a thief, a criminal, so please don't believe that bullshit they're putting at the front of DVDs where they try to criminalize people who are actually doing them no harm, passing material around on the internet that's available in most public libraries where you can already check them out for free, the latest movies and music, a war against a delivery system, how quaint,

If any douchebag from the RIAA had you arrested because somebody left a message on your answering machine that had a Madonna song playing in the background and she's owed royalties, you'd tell them where to stick it, whether it was technically legal with a tape machine or technically illegal with a computer. This prejudice against a particular device that can do precisely what other devices do, only better, has cause a freefall in the world of copyright, with one side fighting to lengthen the time it takes for any intellectual property to enter the public domain, literally a battle over Mickey Mouse, and the public, you know, REALITY, where everything enters the public domain one nanosecond after it arrives on the internet and there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it short of confiscating all our computers.

I'm posting a copy of You Can't Always Get What You Want here because fuck if I'm going to post any Korn or Don Henley. If I made a cassette off the record and mailed it to you, we'd be cool with The Rolling Stones, the RIAA, and the Supreme Court, but since I've decided to save money on tapes and postage by offering it to you this way, I'm technically breaking the law, and so are you if you download it. As a tribute to Rosa Parks and civil disobedience, do it now.

Fuck 'em, let 'em sue each other. Let the "artists" win, and bankrupt the RIAA. Serves 'em right.

And here's a picture of Walt Disney with his fly open.