Get educated... Don't take our word for it.  Research.  Learn. Don't be Manipulated.

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Really BIG NEWS

• RIAA invades PRIVACY, declares support for TERROR(ISM) (TERROR(ism) on your personal computer) (added October 15, 2001)

• Sign the BIG LIST at another site.

• The Agreement reached in court

• Great news!! The original site is back (and revised). I just got email from Bill Evans, the original creator of most of the information on this site (his original). (02/26/2001)

• The RIAA isn't done yet; plans to close all TRY BEFORE YOU BUY music services (02/24/2001)

• Napster makes an offer (later scoffed by the RIAA and it's members) (02/21/2001)

• The RIAA and the California courts end your ability to listen before you buy. (02/12/2001)

• More on the RIAA

• I wrote the RIAA and got this response

Link to me (copy the code below):

<a href="http://village.fortunecity.com/windsor/78/riaa/index.htm" target="_blank">
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• Bertlesman reaches Agreement with Napster!

• Artists, Bands, Songwriters Leave your thoughts about the RIAA Collective to collect your royalties here. Hey it's YOUR Future!

• Future of Music Coalition Website

• RIAA Webcast Royalty Collective Faces New Competitor

• No Opinion Issued in Napster Case; Stay on Injunction Still in Place

• Rick Boucher introduces Music Owners' Listening Rights Act of 2000

• MP3.Com Calls for The Million Email March to encourage Congress to pass the Music Owners' Listening Rights Act of 2000 
  

Bill Evans kept the site into late October 2000 (re-opening it in late February 2001) and I will be keeping the site open indefinitely attempting to report on the continuing battles between RIAA and those who promote music in other ways.

There are many issues here other than the copyright issue. "Work for hire" is one issue (which has been addressed by both the Senate and The House). The ability to link to whatever site you want on the web is another. (For example if I linked to the website MP3 Board, I could be sued by the RIAA  for providing links to "illegal" files) by their definition of it. This is the basis of  Napster lawsuit, the MP3Board lawsuit, no illegal files are stored on their servers at all, just a database of links. 

MP3.Com felt they did the right thing, by purchasing 80,000 CDs and making MP3 files that only people who already owned the CD could play. It's a technicality folks (who created the MP3 file) basically telling you can't listen to music you already own, if the copy you are listening to belongs to someone else.

Music needs to have copyrights protected, by the creator of that music, the artist(s) should derive the bulk of money generated from the sales of the music (which does not happen; witness TLC: Behind The Music on VH-1), not the lawyers, not the RIAA, not the labels. Until the labels wake up and realize that the world has changed, that if they are going to continue to be successful, they must adopt the idea that online music is here to stay. The consumer wants to control the music they listen to and download, and it must  be SIMPLE. No jumping through hoops, no clicking 13 links, no charging $2.49 for one song or $15.99 for an entire album (when) the costs are lower. If you want a lesson in simple, run Napster. Do a search and download a file. To the labels, apply the principle of KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid. 

Lets talk about the Big 5 Companies. THREE of them are owned by companies from outside the US (since when do we as Americans allow our lives to be control by foreign interests?). Yet they are trying to shape copyright law in this country They have donated LARGE sums of money to the Republican Party. For foreign owned companies to hire high-priced lobbyists (the RIAA),  renting office space in Washington DC smacks of an attack against our very principles on which this country was founded.

If these lawsuits are successful, the very nature of the internet will change. Search engines as we know them will go away; providing links to controversial information about pharmaceuticals will go away. Large websites with thousands of links will go away. Why? So the membership of the RIAA can continue to screw the artist, and the buying public as they have for years.

Get educated, research, learn, and don't be manipulated.

Take the time to write to your congressman, the record companies, you favorite artists. Let them know your feelings, thoughts, and ideas. 

Show the RIAA and the world who really controls the music industry in this country. The Consumer. We've found a site that lets you pay the artist directly; its called Fairtunes.Com

Are we promoting the illegal copying of files? NO, I am not.

What I am advocating is:

• A boycott of RIAA member recordings PERMANENTLY (or until there are massive layoffs of MANAGEMENT at both the labels and the RIAA), until online music becomes a reasonably-priced reality/commodity (and the 2.49 per song at cdnow.com is NOT reasonable).

• That musicians and songwriters should retain ownership of their endeavors after their contract with the record companies expires

• That the internet is a broadcast medium and fees paid for streaming music files should be collected from those broadcasting that music (along the lines of radio play), but free to the fan

• That those fees collected for "broadcast" be administered by a third party, not the RIAA
  

The RIAA has a negative effect on music and the majority of musicians in this country.

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