Comments on: The End of an Era: RNS Busted

By: Someone

Someone — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:45:12 +0000

Shame RNS got hit after all these years. I didn’t personally know any of the group members but was on a site they affiliated with. Makes me glad I left that life behind long ago. The scene is a shadow of its former self today anyway, what with all the leech account selling going on. It was inevitable though, especially as the cost of running topsite servers went up.

By: PJ

PJ — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 19:29:12 +0000

What’s criminal is the size of these fines. That amount money would never be made otherwise. And they’re not exactly deterring folks from sharing songs. Why not employ this group of guys as consultants on new media distribution instead, and let them pay back a few bucks a month that way?

What this amounts to is the lawyers making these guys into music distributors and charging them exhorbitant fees for distribution rights – after the fact. And the group never made a cent off of it. This is just another example of corporate dehumanizing, reducing the transfer of a work of art to a dollar amount. I’m sure no artist signed to a record label anywhere has EVER used Kazaa, bittorrent, or anything else to download a music file illegally. Likewise, I’m certain no recording artist would never make unlicensed copies of their own works for anyone, not even themselves. Because every recording artist is so rich that they surely pay full retail price for every piece of music media they acquire, right?

“If we can’t make the money in retail, we’ll make it in the courts” seems to be the RIAA’s mantra. Disgusting.

By: Greg

Greg — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:54:35 +0000

Great post! Regarding the $24bn figure, that might still be in the works. Criminal copyright infringement and civil copyright infringement are separate. I imagine that the record industry will await the outcome of the criminal trial, or at least come close (they’ll file if they have to because of an impending statute of limitations bar), because if they are convicted criminally (“beyond a reasonable doubt”) then the same legal elements will be considered conclusively proven in a civil proceeding where the standard is a mere “preponderence of evidence.” Look for statutes of limitation to be an issue, but I fully expect the record industry to go for a record-setting civil damages judgment against these guys that will be in addition to any criminal fines assessed.