Hi folks!

The following article was taken from the Sun (current Bun) online - far quicker to read than the normal printed version - and that's all I'm saying!

Also - the vote system on the forum could be used a lot more to create debate amongst the members. How about a topic agenda every week set and agreed by us lot, and then posted once a week. The results or statistics could be put forward as a 'present views of members of DJU' - with a follow-up every 6-12mths to see if the views / results or opinions had changed.
Example idea:

'How many times do you use P2P (peer to peer) software: every day, 1-2 times per week, on and off, monthly, rarely, never, all the time, etc....'


Girl sued for rhyme theft
A GIRL of 12 was last night facing a huge fine for “stealing” her favourite nursery rhyme from the internet.
Brianna LaHara is among a tiny group of music fans who are being sued by record industry bosses for illegal downloading music.
But bewildered Brianna, right, told how she did not even realise she was breaking the law and added: “I’m really shocked and scared — my stomach is in knots.
“Out of all the millions of people that do this, why did they pick on me?”
The youngster downloaded the nursery rhyme If You’re Happy And You Know It, along with TV themes and tracks by Christina Aguilera and Mariah Carey in her New York home.
And last night British online music fans were warned they too could be sued in future crackdowns.
Brianna’s mum Sylvia said they thought they were acting within the law because they had paid a £20 “service charge” for the Kazaa software they used to grab tunes from rogue websites.
And she blasted record company bosses for their heavy-handed tactics.
Nursing agency director Sylvia, 40, said: “This is a 12-year-old, for crying out loud. She was on the verge of tears when she found out. We were just listening to music and sometimes dancing.”
Brianna is among 261 music fans who have been targeted. An estimated 60million people regularly download music.
Under US copyright laws she could be fined £100,000 for each song downloaded. In previous cases music bosses have settled cases for just over £1,000 each. The Recording Industry Association of America said last night that it was unaware of Brianna’s age — but was unrepentant about its decision to sue.
A spokesman added: “Nobody likes playing the heavy, but when your product is being regularly stolen there comes a time when you have to take action.” Their London-based sister organization, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, warned it had not ruled out legal action in Britain. A spokesman said: “The RIAA’s action is a totally justified response. Downloading copyrighted music is illegal and legal action will not be ruled out in future.” In America, CD sales have been so badly hit by fans downloading music that stores have been forced to slash the price of albums to around £8 to combat a 30 per cent slump.
• BRITISH internet shoppers doubled the amount they spent online last year — hitting £10billion.

haha...its the RIAA, not the whole world yet...but its still a concern.

i personally never use Kazaa, morpheus, etc....

only time i use it is when required to find a "rare" track ie not in sale anymore. that's it.

its a bit harsh to attack the "customors" but they should try to shut down kazza and its copies by its core, not the outsides.

Just another step towards the U.S ruling the world

I don't condone copyright theft, but given that UK Customers pay more for the same CD, made by the same artiste, promoted by the same record company than their U.S or even European Colleagues, then I think that they are being hypocritical to say the least. I think that action will be justified, but only when everybody is paying the same price for the same cd world over.

I once read an article just after the film Matrix Reloaded was released, the article covered the story of the film being available on a certain P2P service before it was showing at the cinema!. The article had a big headline claiming "P2P is killing the film industry!!!"

Interestingly the next article below contained the headline "Matrix Reloaded Smashes All Box Office Records!!!"

We had the same headlines when the Tape Deck came onto the market, with several record companies saying that it would kill the record industry - that was some 25 years ago, and I don't see record producers going short .

Instead of alienating the record buying public and prosecuting its potential customers the record companies should embrace the technology of P2P and use it to market their clients. I'm sure that many D.J's would be willing to download new material on a subscription basis, legally, in a similar way to the monthly releases from Mastermix or DMC for example.

Since the R.I.A.A tell us that the vast majority of the expense of buying a CD is in the production of the CD itself then purchase based ftp download sites will eliminate the CD and prices will fall drastically...everybody will be happy. The Customer will then be able to legally own the music, and either leave it on his / her hard drive or burn to cd (at their own expense) as required. With the increase in the use of digital management and serial copy techniques, the R.I.A.A could easily prevent the music being duplicated - i.e one download being reproduced on several CD's for re-sale.

IMHO P2P will always be around, the more the R.I.A.A push, the deeper underground it will go. With the introduction of the Freenet network and encryption techniques, somebody will always be one step ahead of them.

Some Interesting Links:-

About the New Freenet Network

Boycott R.I.A.A

Advice From The E.F.F

The Current R.I.A.A Hit List (U.S based)

Keep your heads down , the prob is being delt with...
Gary, can you ring me ref, our conversation, some one else is on the case, and want the TVDJA to join them, ah, the power of DJ's, well association members anyways.