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The difference between piracy and theft

dp | 04.02.2007 15:58 | Culture | Technology

CDs always only cost a few pence to produce, but until file-sharing became wide-spread they were always sold for £15 in the UK, $10 in the US. That hefty mark-up was the same for Sony BMG CDs, for EMI CDs, for Vivendi Universal CDs and for Warner Music CDs. No legal charges against this monopolistic, exploitative, price-fixing cartel were ever brought because governments protect business not citizens.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), (aka Sony BMG, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Warner Music), prosecuted a New York woman for piracy. She fought back and insisted on taking them in front of a jury. So they dropped charges against her and instead have went for her daughter and son who were 16 and 12 respectively at the time. Michelle is blaming the file-sharing company Kazaa for marketing that allowed her, with no computer knowledge, to think she could download freely. Bobby Santangelo is demanding trial by jury.

Bobby points out that Edgar Bronfman, chairman and CEO of the Warner Music Group, recently admitted that his own children 'stole' music but that he 'dealt with it within the family' by reprimanding them. That's a nice option compared to having your family bankrupted by a series of malicious lawsuits. The rich get richer only when the poor are cowed into submission. The Santangelo family, supported by the file-sharing community, prove if we take a stand, we can reverse the situation.

 http://p2pnet.net/story/11178

If you can afford a small donation to Bobby's court costs, remember it could be your kid next time:  http://www.p2pnet.net/goliath/


Bill Gates, another rich as sin scourge of pirates, recently met with the President of Romania to promote his latest over-priced product. The President told him "Piracy helped the young generation discover computers. It set off the development of the IT industry in Romania and helped Romanians improve their creative capacity in the IT industry, which has become famous around the world... ten years ago, it was an investment in Romania's friendship with Microsoft and with Bill Gates."

Gates said nothing - no MicroShaft lawyers have contacted the Romanian goverment.

dp

Comments

Display the following 38 comments

  1. Time Linux — Handsup
  2. theft, piracy, whatever you call it — sceptic
  3. We Dont — ...
  4. Artifical Scarcity — freedom
  5. Stealing from the richest man in history — dp
  6. Theft is still theft — sceptic
  7. sceptic — Handsup
  8. dp — Sick of windows
  9. Pirates they be — Capt Bob
  10. dual-boot — dp
  11. How rich do they have to be? — sceptic
  12. har — Black beard
  13. get it right — frill
  14. No fears — dp
  15. Curious ... — sceptic
  16. hobby — anarcho-pirate
  17. EgoBoo — dp
  18. BUSINESS DEGREES ARE KILLING MUSIC! — 3x-1337 \/\/4r3z 14g
  19. Quality and loss — dp
  20. working for free — sceptic
  21. bored myself — dp
  22. dp — \/\/4r3z
  23. dp — Handsup
  24. Resorting to .. — sceptic
  25. wrong — lawyer
  26. greed & worth — buckys balls
  27. lawyer on wrong track — sceptic
  28. Oh dear! — \/\/4r3z
  29. Royalties — sceptic
  30. Sceptic — \/\/4r3z
  31. Guillotine the Royalties — dp
  32. Research — sceptic
  33. real artists share; piss-artists exploit — dp
  34. dp the stalker — sceptic
  35. hi liar — dp
  36. ignorance — sceptic
  37. sorry ? — dp
  38. South Park, Metallica, and the end of Digital Rights — Krop