RIAA sues Usenet.com
 

After mixed results in suing P2P hubs like Napster and Grokster, thousands of individual sharers in networks like KaZaA, and websites such as AllofMP3.com, RIAA has come full circle. Its latest salvo targets the Usenet newsgroup, which in terms of Internet time is the Pre-cambrian underbelly of the World Wide Web.

Says RIAA spokeswoman Cara Duckett:

Usenet.com has promoted and advanced an illegal business model on the backs of the music community. It may be theft in a slightly different online form, but the illicit business model of usenet.com is little different than the Groksters of the world…. This business should not be allowed to remain a brazen outlaw that actively shirks its legal obligations.

Links:
Lawsuit PDF
Article on TorrentFreak
Wired News Article

Commentary:
Interesting development, but it certainly took them a while, didn't it? I have used Usenet before on a free service, and the completion rate of binaries wasn't so hot. I wasn't willing to pay for the ability to download stuff off newsgroups when I could get it on Bittorrent. Looks like the decision wasn't so bad.

Isn't Usenet older than the internet 'as-we-know-it' itself? I mean to say the purpose of Usenet is to trade MP3s is kinda a shot in the dark, isn't it? I mean christ, who even owns 'Usenet' anyways? Does it even make any money?

Oh, have you browsed through newsgroups? It's got a lot of stuff - a whole DAMN lot of stuff.

Usenet.com basically charges you for newsgroups subscriptions - while your ISP may already give you access, they usually don't carry the binaries newsgroups - which is where all the good stuff is located.

I used to use newsgroups ALL the time back in the day. Schoolbus (I don't even know if he's still around here ;_; ) had a sweet tutorial on it.

Like you said, took them long enough. So many illegal things on there.

Even if they DO manage to take out Usenet.com, there are still what, a thousand different USENET providers out there? Not to mention that every ISP provider has some USENET retention. This is just silly. It's like after massive failure suing with P2P groups they shot their lawyers and in a hulk rage ran to the court room yelling "I'm gone sue the INTERNETZ".

You know me. I'm all for the RIAA going after really stupid people.

But Christ, Usenet? What dumbass in a thinktank came up with THAT strategy?

I make my prediction right now -- 18 months before the virtual collapse of the music industry as we know it today.

You guys don't deal with the music industry like I do. These guys are hurting -- BAD. Ten years ago, even a marginal act with moderate radio play could probably work their sales up to 900-1,200,000 easy.

In hip-hop, you had artists like Busta Rhymes going to Elektra Records and securing 3 to 4 million dollar recording budgets, plus obscene amounts for music video production. Rock bands, obviously due to the nature of their craft, probably could command even larger budgets. This was a time when major record labels would actually support an album and actively promote 3 and 4 singles, which allowed an artist who didn't have a monster single right out of the gate to still be successful because they kept on pushing records out there.

No longer. Back in the gap, labels used to actually try and mold an artist. Now, indie artists have to mold themselves. It's no longer about creating a hot album, it's about creating a catchy single that will get people to buy ringtones. Just to show you how crazy shit is -- go to Itunes and buy any song off anyone's album and it's $.99 cents. Buy a ringtone from your cellular phone and it's anywhere from $1.99 to 2.99.

What the FUCK?

I was offered a full-fledged recording contract a year ago that I declined because the record labels are hurting so badly that they're starting to demand obscene royalties from everything. Used to, they got the merchandising, a huge chunk of record royalties, half the publishing, and owned your entire catalogue. However, whatever you earned from touring was yours. So here I am, sitting in an office in Atlanta, GA looking at a contract that wants me to give up 50 percent of all touring revenue. Needless to say, I'm still working a regular job and recording on the side, trying to do it independently, where there's more money.

So when you see these guys go after P2P networks and individuals, it's a last gasp of a dying giant. So don't fret, keep bootlegging.

I'm really upset Bono can no longer afford to feed his family. Really.

I'm guessing you don't use it.

Because there is a SHITLOAD of awesomeness on usenet. I use it frequently.

I abandoned Usenet around the same time I stopped running MUDs on Telnet. This is probably 1995 or so.

Your loss. For serious.

(You should take a look again sometime. Things have changed. Get GrabIt.)

I see this from another side from you.

For the last three years, I've been climbing up the same steep hill to get a soundtrack CD released. This is seperate and probably more technical than what you're use to dealing with - you mentioned the whole aspect of contracts for popular artists involve ownership of cataloges and royalties. I'm stuck at an impasse involving two record labels, a music agent, University Of Southern California's Media Library and the largest film distributor in the United Kingdom.

Where has it gotten me? Barely anywhere.

Whats the reason they Cite? Bootlegging. "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free", more or less. Also - movie music royalties are tricky since it involves a three pronged system of cash flow. To get the film company to sit down at a table, you need to have six figures to start with. Then you have to pay for the type of release (1,000 Cds, 3,000 Cds, etc) and then the remastering, the packaging, etc.

I realize that I'm talking about a niche market, but hearing someone who supposedly wants to break into the industry and support bootlegging makes me wonder about you, man. Truth be told - you'd be running a lot of honest, hardworking people out of a job. Nevermind artists - there will always be a need for music. But people like CSAs, Marketing Directors, Graphic Designers... people who push papers to make a living will suddenly have nothing to put in their wallet.

After all - what is $1 to you? Are you that cheap you won't buy music you like? Nevermind hot artists - what about the people who are on dimestore record labels trying to get somewhere?

The whole idea of bootlegging seems to boil down to people who don't have the money to buy music and probably don't deserve to have a notion - never mind an opinion - about what they think of it suddenly feel they have the right to take what isn't theres. I mean, thats just me, I don't rob people I invite into my house.

Stealing would be someone else's loss.

Last I knew, making music was something people did as an art because they love to do it, not as a money-making machine.

If you happen to make a lot of money at it, that's secondary to your love of the game music.

What's the harm in NP pushing his own shit.

Last I heard, higher education was to better one's self, not to simply get a job. But what things are suppose to be and what things actually are are rarely the same.

And if crime didn't pay, there would be very few criminals. But not all criminals are wealthy individuals, are they? No, quite the other way around, in fact. You're pushing the idea that its only the artist the suffers - but what about the thousands of people employed by Decca or Elektra or the guy who washes floors at Warner Bros Music?

Nothing per se. Putting yourself out there in the way people bootleg is a great way to get known - but a terrible way to make a living at it.

A "bigger" example of this stupidity was the premiere of the movie Serenity - why would you let in all the fans of the show to see the movie for free? Similarly, why would you want to give away your hard-earned work if you wanted to make a living at making music?

The issue is not that they are attacking Usenet per se. They are attacking a Usenet PROVIDER. That is why it is eminently silly. The only reason they chose this particular provider, presumably, is that it's the first provider to come up when you Google for "usenet".

Attacking Usenet itself is at its core comically impossible, it's like attacking Telnet or something.

Let us all weep, yes, for the self-evident useless functionary.

I wonder who they'll sue next. The internet?

I'm sure lumberjacks who were and are pressured into shutting down because of conservation laws or activist groups feel pretty sorry for themselves. But it's never going to be the execs who suffer in these situations, and while blue collars are suffering for the higher ups' inadequacy, they'll squeeze at a failing business model until the last bit of profit is wrung from its juicy center. At least until public opinion makes them change their mind.

I don't support bootlegging at all, that's the thing. I'm just fully aware that the business model of the record industry is doomed to failure. Especially for hip-hop, which is so oversaturated that if I were to sign a major record label deal today, even with all the promotion in the world, I'd be lucky to sell 500,000 copies -- and that would require me to have a monster first single and at least a moderately successful second single.

Indie is the way to go, plain and simple.

I have a premium Usenet account with Newshosting and for the most part (lately) Ive been getting Blu-Ray stuff. Cant see that as a viable option on bit torrent. But..just to put in my 2 cents here..I think most people buy DVDs these days rather than music cds. At least that is how it is for me. I would rather plunk down 20 bucks and get a nice dvd set than some music cd that costs just as much.
Usenet is not going anywhere. Usenet providers dont keep logs of their users downloads..otherwise no one would sign up. Easynews, Newshosting, Giga..all have SSL so its in another league than p2p (imesh/kazaa/mule). RIAA might as well sue themselves. I find it hilarious that they issue "takedown" notices to Usenet providers. Once something is upped to a newsgroup..it is not coming back!
What's next? Sue TCP/IP? Or maybe..air? :rolleyes:


Actually..let me correct that. I'm not so much getting "blu-ray" stuff as I'm getting HDTV stuff. I download .ts (transport streams) that people upload (often just as big as the blu-ray discs! Gone with the Wind was 35 gigs in the hdtv newsgroup). I.e. movies, documentaries, in 1080p that they recorded using myHD pc hardware. Sort of like vhs copies of TV programs. I still know that the MPAA will sue the pants off anyone doing so if it becomes possible to catch them. But with chained proxies, remailers, TOR, Vidalia becoming more widely available, catching Usenet uplaoders will be ten times more difficult for the RIAA/MPAA than P2P sharers.

At least they're doing this and not being smart enough to, say, join forces with Odex and terrorise the world with thier own new improved brand of arsehollery.