[Fmpro] Fwd: Moses Supposes December 2006: RIAA reveals secrets

[Les Hurdle]

>
>
> Moses Supposes – December 2006
> (now in HTML)
>  
> Sort of like music biz news, but a lot funnier and more honest.
>  
>  
> In this issue:
>  
> -- RIAA may have to expose secrets files to pursue pirates.
> -- Universal sues MySpace again?  What up?
> -- Is there life after Tower?  Is that writing on the wall or bird 
> droppings?
> -- Dee Snider: the New Feminist Cause Celeb?
>  
>  
> New on MosesAvalon.com
> =======================
>  
> Just about everything. I’ve had my web guru remove all the frames. 
> What this means for you who use my site as regular resource, is you 
> you will no longer have to go to www.MosesAvalon.com and THEN navigate 
> to your favorite page.  Now you can bookmark pages within the site for 
> direct links; like the Royalty Calculator and articles in the Moses 
> Supposes archives. If you read something that you think is helpful to 
> you or someone else, you can now bookmark the exact URL and forward 
> it.
>  
> Now, for those who missed the last Confessions of A Record Producer 
> Workshop, well… not to rub it in, but, here’s who was there and what 
> they thought.
>  
> “I thought I knew the basics of the business, but Moses' workshop had 
> me scratching my head. Now I really know how things work.  Thanks 
> Moses.” ----
> --Chandler Bridges, mixer, engineer: Jennifer Lopez, Snoop Dogg.
>  
> “Your presentation of the complicated business of music is the most 
> thorough and comprehensive I have ever seen.”
>  --John Hartman, teacher and former manager of Crosby Stills Nash & 
> Young, Jackson Brown and many others.
>  
> ”The Confessions Workshop is the most well thought out, articulate, 
> and comprehensive workshop I have ever seen. Every artist, producer, 
> programmer, arranger, musician, engineer and songwriter needs to do 
> it!” –
> --Rob Chiarelli, producer/mixer:  Will Smith, Christina Aguilera, 
> Hilary Duff, Ice Cube
>  
> “As a lifelong corporate music whore, I can honestly say that most 
> insiders lack the comprehensive overview of the business that your 
> course offers.”
> --John Brodey, Sr. VP PolyGram, Geffen and Mercury Records
>  
>  
> But enough about me…
>  
>  
> RIAA LAWSUITS HIT BRICK WALL.
> File Sharer Fights Back. Threatens
> to Expose Their Dirty Secrets.
> ================================
>
>  Last year Marie Lindor, a Brooklyn health-care worker, received a 
> Christmas card from the RIAA.  Like thousands before her this one was 
> a demand letter for roughly $750,000. The reason: accidental copyright 
> infringement. An actionable offense that carries with it a fine of 
> $5000 in statutory damages per infringement and 12 hours community 
> service giving rappers singing lessons. 
>  
> Lindor, was sued last January along with nearly 1,000 others for 
> stealing music off the internet. But this New York gal has decided to 
> do something no one else has as of yet; she’s fighting back. She has 
> asked the court to require the RIAA to open up their secret files and 
> reveal the method of exactly how they find targets for their suits. 
> This motion could require the mysterious cyber cop service, 
> MediaSentry, to reveal the nature their relationship with the RIAA.  
> MediaSentry claims to use a secret mojo that traces IP addresses on 
> P2P networks and harvests personal computer information.  They 
> pipeline this to the RIAA as potential targets for infringement suits.
>  
> Lindor’s attorney is Ray Beckerman, a partner at New York-based 
> Vandenberg & Feliu. Beckerman claims that Lindor has never “used or 
> even turned on a computer in her life."
>
>  ”Oh really,” alleges the RIAA, “then how come she maintains a 
> broadband account and a screen name that matched hers. Don’t tell me 
> she just happens to have that because she subscribes to cable TV.” 
>  
> Yes, actually. Like thousands of others who’ve ordered Cable TV, she 
> gets a bundled email and broadband account whether they have a 
> computer or not. MediaSentry could have uncovered this fact using such 
> sophisticated hi-tech methods like--  going through her trash. 
> Regardless, the RIAA is convinced that this is their smoking gun.  
> “Despite the rhetoric of neo-liberals, music does not belong to ‘the 
> people,’” they said while foaming at the mouth, “It belongs to the 
> labels. The sixties is over, dude. Get real.”
>  
> If the case reaches a jury it would be the first one of the RIAA’s 
> 18,000 claims against infringers to be put to the test. So far 5,000 
> have settled. If Lindor wins it could derail the other 14,000 cases 
> still pending. This would likely inspire a resurrection of the rampant 
> theft on P2P services that has cost the record industry 100s of jobs 
> and 100s of millions in royalties to artists. The use of P2P networks 
> to steal music has calmed substantially since the start of the RIAA’s 
> campaign three years ago.
>
>  Beckerman claims on his blog he now has the RIAA on the run since 
> U.S. District Judge David Trager has granted his request to pursue 
> this motion.  A trial is scheduled for sometime in 2007.
>
>  Case: UMG Recordings v. Marie Lindor, 05CV1095.
>  
>  
> IS THERE LIFE AFTER TOWER?
> ==========================
>  
> Tower is Gone.  So What?  Who Cares?
>  
> I’ve gotten a little sick of reading posts bemoaning the death of 
> Tower Records.  It’s all over the net.  Every so-called music business 
> guru and expert thinks they know what this means.  I’m going to tell 
> you what it means in a second, but first here’s the digest of what 
> most are saying.
>  
> “This is what the music business gets and deserves for being greedy 
> and ignoring the internet.”
> “It’s the end of the music business for sure.”
> “The death knell is upon us.”
>  
> Okay, you get the idea. You ready for the truth? Can you handle the 
> truth?  It means this…
>  
> Nothing.
>  
> Stores close all the time without it meaning Armageddon.  Did the 
> closing of Woolworths stop Wal-Mart from prospering?  Not!  And I can 
> assure you that the closing of Tower Records will have just about zero 
> negative impact on Best Buy—where over half of America buys it’s 
> music.
>  
> Sometime before the end of this year or soon into January I’m going to 
> write my state-of-the-business pantheon.  It will go into more 
> detail.  But for now here’s my recommendation for dealing with people 
> who say the music business is dying or in “serious trouble.” Walk 
> away.  They don’t know what they are talking about.
>  
> And I’ll say it here: I challenge ANYONE who has the credentials to 
> call themselves an “expert in the music business” to debate me with a 
> viewpoint to the contrary. I’ve had just about enough of this BS about 
> this business being on life-support.  This past year the business saw 
> more gross revenue than it has seen since the 1960s.  It’s 
> preposterous to think that anything is wrong on a global scale. People 
> who say otherwise are just trying to frighten you so you’ll look 
> towards them as an authority.
>  
> Disappoint them.
>  
> More on this later.
>  
>  
>  
> UNIVERSAL SUES MYSPACE YET AGAIN?
>  Majors Wants To Have Their MySpace And Eat It Too
> ============================================
>  
> Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the music biz, 
> Universal Music reminds us that it’s never too late to alienate 
> allies. MySpace was bought by News Corp for $580 million and now UMD 
> wants to take just about all of it.  They claimed MySpace as "a vast 
> virtual warehouse for pirated copies of music videos and songs," and 
> is suing for close to $1 Billion.
>  
> Last month UMD made a deal with MySapce to play it cool with them in 
> exchange for their promise to do whatever they can to prevent 
> infringement through use of their service.  Apparently they are not 
> doing enough.  Now UMD is suing and asking for the max: $150,000 per 
> infringement.  At this rate, with the tens of thousands of sites that 
> use unauthorized content, MySpace will be forced into a dot com 
> retirement home.
>  
> The UMD suit comes almost to the day that MySpace claims the release 
> of a tool that will alert copyright holders that they are being 
> jacked. MySpace would then remove any of the infringing content. This 
> is in concert with the already in place Gracenote fingerprinting 
> technology that supposedly prevents the posting of unauthorized 
> music.  “Clearly it doesn’t,” says UNI, “The foundation of MySpace is 
> its so-called 'user-generated content.' However, much of that content 
> is not 'user-generated' at all. Rather, it is  'user-stolen.’” The 
> suit cites major stars like U2, 50 Cent, and Prince as acts whose 
> recordings have allegedly been posted without permission on the site.
>
>  Now we know that UMD is just looking out for their artists.  Yeah we 
> know that. And we know that they are legally in the right. But jees.  
> MySpace is the best thing to come along for artists to promote 
> themselves without a major label.  Oh wait!!!  Could that be a 
> motivation for UMD to sue? 
>
> MySpace claims, "We are in full compliance with the Digital Millennium 
> Copyright Act and have no doubt we will prevail in court.”  They are 
> referring to the DMCA's so-called “safe-harbor provision” which says 
> that a dot com host is not responsible for what gets posted on its 
> server; a defense that has thus far not impressed Courts.  Can you 
> say, Napster, Nutella, Kazaa and Grokster.
>  
> Representing the UMG plaintiffs are Steven Marenberg, Elliot Brown and 
> Gregory Fayer of Los Angeles' Irell & Manella.
>  
> Comments can be left at a UMD special hot line set up to handle your 
> feelings on this subject.  Just call: 1-800-How’s my Suing?
>
>  The case is UMG Recordings Inc. v. MySpace Inc., 06cv07361.
>  
>  
>  
> IS DEE SNIDER THE NEW FEMINIST HERO?
> Twisted Sister Makes Medical History:
> First Rock Band to Fight PMS
> =====================================
>  
> Following the trend of pop groups making unorthodox deals to sell 
> their music, Twisted Sister, the Long Island 80s hair band that 
> celebrated male ego, has licensed their hit, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” 
> to a TV commercial for Sarafem, a drug that relieves severe PMS in 
> women and some metrosexuals.  In the ad which aired this week, the 
> song, written by lead singer, Dee Snider, scores a montage of 
> professional women looking sternly empowered in high-profile jobs.
>  
> “Hard rock has not been a common choice for selling women’s products 
> and we feel this is a bold move,” said a source at the ad agency. 
> “It’s an important leap for women’s rights too,” said Lorena Bobbit, 
> who was the first to successfully use PMS as a defense when she cut 
> off her husband’s penis in 1993 because he failed to give her an 
> orgasm. “Had I had this drug back then I might have been a different 
> person.”
>  
> The choice to use this song came out of an intense debate among 
> executives of the drug’s manufacturer, Warner Chilcott. “We wanted a 
> positive upbeat anthem,” said a company rep. The rock song tested best 
> over, “I Haven’t Got Time For the Pain,” “Janie’s Got A Gun” and the 
> Meredith Brooks hit, “Bitch.”
>  
> Will “We’re not gonna take it” become the new millennium’s “burn your 
> bra?” Lead guitarist for the rock group, Jay Jay French, sees the 
> possibilities. He said the money for this placement was “an offer too 
> good to refuse.” Not satisfied with a potential Nobel Prize for 
> fighting PMS, he’s considering taking on other medical issues. “I’d 
> like to license ‘I Wanna Rock’ for Viagra and ‘Come Out And Play’ for 
> Cialis.”
>  
> Is this a good mix?  Rock bands certainly know a great deal about 
> using recreational drugs. Can they make the transition to endorsing 
> over-the-counter ones? In 2004 Kool & The Gang licensed “Celebrate” to 
> Phizer for their drug Celebrex. The drug was supposed to relive heart 
> conditions but was proven to increase the risk of heart attack in many 
> users.
>  
> Stick to pot and coke fellas.
>  
> For more on Sarafem and the condition it addresses go to: 
> http://www.wcrx.com/products/sarafem.php
>
>  
>  
> That’s all f’now. See ya next year.
>  
> END
>  
>  You are subscribed to the following list: Moses Avalon's Mailing List 
>  using the following email: spedding at aol.com You may automatically 
> unsubscribe from this list at any time by hitting reply and typing 
> "remove" in the subject banner.
How do you know your product has been downloaded?
How do you know you should be paid?