The RIAA is providing fodder for conspiracy theorists for a generation to come - you think the Blackout of '03 was caused by a catastrophic chain of grid failures begun in northeast Ohio? Ha ha, duped again!:
- The recording industry is providing its most detailed glimpse into some of the techniques it has employed as part of its campaign against online music swappers.
....According to the documents, the Recording Industry Association of America determined that the most effective way to stop this woman from pirating music was to shut down her power and the power of everyone in her neighborhood. Indeed, everyone in her state, neighborhing states, and even neighboring country, just for good measure. In so doing, the RIAA created the biggest power black out in North American history.
The documents further reveal that the RIAA, stung by civil-liberties backlashes after opening its massive detention facility in Mojave, CA last month, decided to try a different approach to its ongoing war on digital music piracy, by shutting down the Internet altogether. When it discovered it could not do that, it decided to shut down power to the personal computers of tens of millions of consumers, effectively denying them access to the Internet.
"We accept responsibility for this action," said RIAA President Cary Sherman. [Denounce]
And darned effective it was, for a while anyway. But what do you do for an encore? The nefarious file sharers will switch to generators next time.
Article comments
1 - Craig Lyndall
I love the idea that file sharers (music thieves) all over the world are these dastardly villains who frequently finger their pencil thin moustaches while calculating their nefarious plans for stealing pennies from artists.
I think it is more a consequence of how easy it is than it is a bunch of people who are looking to trample on laws.
This will be an interesting process as the RIAA continues it's crusades.
2 - Dew
What's interesting is that the Riaa Brigade and Movies Menaces have a strong (or what they consider a strong) case going against pirateers. But what about software? Do they just not care or not know?
3 - Craig Lyndall
DON'T GIVE THEM ANY IDEAS!!!
Seriously though, Microsoft went insane in the corporate world a couple years back. Because that represents such a huge portion of their revenues, I feel like they almost don't care about individuals as long as they have those fat corporate contracts.
4 - Dew
*ahem* I know, ummm, a friend, yea a friend thats it, I know a friend who has quite a bit of software all nice and licensed. Now I will be the first to admit software pirating is nothing else but stealing. But then you look at Bill Gates and think he's not missing this 75.00$ I just saved. Still though its wrong, its just hard to think about that when you need Adobe Illustrator 10 and they want 150$ for it, despite the student discount. <@><@> Or so I have been told.