Almost a real update
But instead you get my English report. Not bad for 2 hours work which included research though.
RIAA
The United States, a land of liberty, or at least it would be, if not for corporations like the RIAA. Let me set the stage for you: Little Bobby Jenkins wants to listen to a song from his favorite band, but being a mere child of 9, he can not possibly afford to buy their CD. So he resorts to the next best thing, getting the song of a filesharing program on the Internet for free. All is well for little Bobby, that is, until the RIAA finds out about this "atrocity". Seeing as how this is so devastating this is the music industry, the RIAA sues little Bobby and his parents for $20,000, a price that no normal person could reasonably afford. And this is called justice. How can that be considered justice by any stretch of the imagination? Your pseudo justices will not sustained for long, this will only generate hate and retaliation against you, and your corporation will fall.
You say you are protecting the Freedom of Speech, but you are actually doing the exact opposite of that. If you were really protecting the Freedom of Speech, wouldn't you want people to hear the music for free, instead of charging people insane prices to hear it? If you are such advent supports of Free Speech, then why did you try to silence Edward Felton, a Princeton professor who took on the challenge of breaking the security system on CD's but when he tried to published his works, you threatened to sue him under the DMCA? On the flip side however, you had no problem support the sell of CD's with explicit lyrics to minors because you said doing anything else would be limiting free speech. I guess you only support free speech when it benefits you, eh? Now you want to sue people who are legally making copies of their music, something that is protected in the constitution. What a great country you are making us become, with the taking away of our rights and all.
There are people who want to legally buy your music, but they can't afford it. I don't blame them for turning to things like Peer-to-Peer programs because music today is so ridiculous expensive that people can't afford to pay. Can you not see the problem does not only lie on the so-called "criminals" but on you as well? When you charge $20 for something that should only cost at most, $8 to $10, people are going to look for other ways of obtaining your product. It's no surprise that when you look at the numbers, as the prices start to rise, the sales start to fall. When free competition among retailers was allowed, CD sales were very, very high. When Minimum Advertised Pricing (MAP) was introduced, CD sales slowed down drastically. This isn't the only problem regarding pricing either. A person might only like one song on the CD, but yet they are forced to pay for the other 12 or some odd songs as well. When you give them no choice to buy just one song, like a single, they are forced to go else where for their needs.
You would like people to believe you are protecting the artists, but is that really true? The truth is that you don't benefit the artists in any way, shape, or form. You enacted hidden 2% tax on all CDR's saying that this money would go to the artists, when in reality; it just goes back into your pockets. Not a single artist has benefited from this tax, but you sure have. This is kind of funny considering a musician could buy some CDR's to burn his music onto and try to sell them, but he would be paying you a tax that was meant to help him. Even when artists have contracts with you, they are purposely misleading and outright fraudulent, it is outright stealing. You don't care about the artists; you care about your wallet. If someone isn't a major star, you don't care about him, and that's something you cannot deny. The fact that you have an illegal monopoly doesn't help things either. It's a fact that 85% of all music is released by 5 major labels (Sony, EMI, UMG, Time Warner, and BMG) and with this monopoly, you conspired advertisers to change the consumers higher prices for CDs, with none of which going to the artists. Since you are all in cahoots with each other, there is nowhere else for an artist to get a fair deal! And you wonder why people hate you.
The methods you are using to stop this problem are atrocious to say the least. Scanning peoples hard drives trying to find illegal MP3's? That's invasion of privacy at it's worst. I don't know who dubbed you the Internet police but it certainly wasn't me. You even want to go further then that and start deleting files you think are suspicious, without any investigating at all! Even you have sunk to new lows, suing 12-year-old Brianna LaHara. Never mind the fact she is an honor-roll student, living in public housing with her mom in New York, below the poverty line, she's obviously a horrible criminal for trying to listen to music! Thank goodness she only has to pay a "meager" $2000 settlement, I guess she can just go without eating for a week. You've already settled lawsuits with 51 with 261 people, payments ranging $2500 to $7500. You think is solving the problem? You think this won't just generate more disgust for you and your practices?
People aren't going to stand for this, and the results are showing already. The more you punish people for "stealing" music, the more they are going to do, if only to spite you. They see through your farce and aren't taking it anymore. People are getting angry at you, and down right threatening you. Your website has already been hacked, what more proof do you need that what you are doing is completely to wrong way to go about things? Even the artists are fighting back; they are going independent, making their own websites and promoting their own music, and no longer letting you leach off their creativity. Continuing your practicing of fixed CD prices and scare tactics will surely only lead you to your own destruction.
I have a few words to say to you, so listen well. Actually start to address to the problem, don't just condemn and blame everyone for your failures. Realize that just because CD prices are falling that it doesn't mean this is a direct result of P2P networks and file sharing. The economy is in a slump, so of course CD sales will fall. Offer ways for people to get the songs they like at reasonable prices. Do not think that your "justices" will last forever, people are already seeing through it, and you will fall.
RIAA
The United States, a land of liberty, or at least it would be, if not for corporations like the RIAA. Let me set the stage for you: Little Bobby Jenkins wants to listen to a song from his favorite band, but being a mere child of 9, he can not possibly afford to buy their CD. So he resorts to the next best thing, getting the song of a filesharing program on the Internet for free. All is well for little Bobby, that is, until the RIAA finds out about this "atrocity". Seeing as how this is so devastating this is the music industry, the RIAA sues little Bobby and his parents for $20,000, a price that no normal person could reasonably afford. And this is called justice. How can that be considered justice by any stretch of the imagination? Your pseudo justices will not sustained for long, this will only generate hate and retaliation against you, and your corporation will fall.
You say you are protecting the Freedom of Speech, but you are actually doing the exact opposite of that. If you were really protecting the Freedom of Speech, wouldn't you want people to hear the music for free, instead of charging people insane prices to hear it? If you are such advent supports of Free Speech, then why did you try to silence Edward Felton, a Princeton professor who took on the challenge of breaking the security system on CD's but when he tried to published his works, you threatened to sue him under the DMCA? On the flip side however, you had no problem support the sell of CD's with explicit lyrics to minors because you said doing anything else would be limiting free speech. I guess you only support free speech when it benefits you, eh? Now you want to sue people who are legally making copies of their music, something that is protected in the constitution. What a great country you are making us become, with the taking away of our rights and all.
There are people who want to legally buy your music, but they can't afford it. I don't blame them for turning to things like Peer-to-Peer programs because music today is so ridiculous expensive that people can't afford to pay. Can you not see the problem does not only lie on the so-called "criminals" but on you as well? When you charge $20 for something that should only cost at most, $8 to $10, people are going to look for other ways of obtaining your product. It's no surprise that when you look at the numbers, as the prices start to rise, the sales start to fall. When free competition among retailers was allowed, CD sales were very, very high. When Minimum Advertised Pricing (MAP) was introduced, CD sales slowed down drastically. This isn't the only problem regarding pricing either. A person might only like one song on the CD, but yet they are forced to pay for the other 12 or some odd songs as well. When you give them no choice to buy just one song, like a single, they are forced to go else where for their needs.
You would like people to believe you are protecting the artists, but is that really true? The truth is that you don't benefit the artists in any way, shape, or form. You enacted hidden 2% tax on all CDR's saying that this money would go to the artists, when in reality; it just goes back into your pockets. Not a single artist has benefited from this tax, but you sure have. This is kind of funny considering a musician could buy some CDR's to burn his music onto and try to sell them, but he would be paying you a tax that was meant to help him. Even when artists have contracts with you, they are purposely misleading and outright fraudulent, it is outright stealing. You don't care about the artists; you care about your wallet. If someone isn't a major star, you don't care about him, and that's something you cannot deny. The fact that you have an illegal monopoly doesn't help things either. It's a fact that 85% of all music is released by 5 major labels (Sony, EMI, UMG, Time Warner, and BMG) and with this monopoly, you conspired advertisers to change the consumers higher prices for CDs, with none of which going to the artists. Since you are all in cahoots with each other, there is nowhere else for an artist to get a fair deal! And you wonder why people hate you.
The methods you are using to stop this problem are atrocious to say the least. Scanning peoples hard drives trying to find illegal MP3's? That's invasion of privacy at it's worst. I don't know who dubbed you the Internet police but it certainly wasn't me. You even want to go further then that and start deleting files you think are suspicious, without any investigating at all! Even you have sunk to new lows, suing 12-year-old Brianna LaHara. Never mind the fact she is an honor-roll student, living in public housing with her mom in New York, below the poverty line, she's obviously a horrible criminal for trying to listen to music! Thank goodness she only has to pay a "meager" $2000 settlement, I guess she can just go without eating for a week. You've already settled lawsuits with 51 with 261 people, payments ranging $2500 to $7500. You think is solving the problem? You think this won't just generate more disgust for you and your practices?
People aren't going to stand for this, and the results are showing already. The more you punish people for "stealing" music, the more they are going to do, if only to spite you. They see through your farce and aren't taking it anymore. People are getting angry at you, and down right threatening you. Your website has already been hacked, what more proof do you need that what you are doing is completely to wrong way to go about things? Even the artists are fighting back; they are going independent, making their own websites and promoting their own music, and no longer letting you leach off their creativity. Continuing your practicing of fixed CD prices and scare tactics will surely only lead you to your own destruction.
I have a few words to say to you, so listen well. Actually start to address to the problem, don't just condemn and blame everyone for your failures. Realize that just because CD prices are falling that it doesn't mean this is a direct result of P2P networks and file sharing. The economy is in a slump, so of course CD sales will fall. Offer ways for people to get the songs they like at reasonable prices. Do not think that your "justices" will last forever, people are already seeing through it, and you will fall.