RIAA Bans Telling Friends About Songs

[drjtech]

Straight from "America's Finest News Source"

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43029

RIAA Bans Telling Friends About Songs
November 30, 2005 | Issue 41•48

LOS ANGELES—The Recording Industry Association of America announced Tuesday that it will be taking legal action against anyone discovered telling friends, acquaintances, or associates about new songs, artists, or albums. "We are merely exercising our right to defend our intellectual properties from unauthorized peer-to-peer notification of the existence of copyrighted material," a press release signed by RIAA anti-piracy director Brad Buckles read. "We will aggressively prosecute those individuals who attempt to pirate our property by generating 'buzz' about any proprietary music, movies, or software, or enjoy same in the company of anyone other than themselves." RIAA attorneys said they were also looking into the legality of word-of-mouth "favorites-sharing" sites, such as coffee shops, universities, and living rooms.

[Grimey]

well it's a good thing most Videohelp OT'ers have no friends :P

[Doramius]

I'd like to see them REALLY push that one.

Hey, BTW doesn't StarWars Clone Wars Vol.II come out on DVD Dec. 6th?

I also told my sister that Will Smith has a new album coming out.

[gll99]

Do I get this right that they want to sue people who tell others where they can find copyrighted material on p2p networks.

Maybe this is just to assert their right to go after torrent sites and forums who don't host any actual copyrighted material but point to where it can be found.

I looked at it again and it looks that they even want to ban discussion about new releases. That would mean by their interpretation that we couldn't even discuss new or potentially new cd's and movies. The one who posted a link to the Superman trailer could be sued by this definition.

My but they are getting bold. Something like this would have a major negative fallout for them. I hope they try to stiffle healthy conversation.
This could set them back years.

Or did I misunderstand this completely?

[canadateck]

Or did I misunderstand this completely?

It's not that Cold up here(Canada)

[canadateck]

40 Year Old Virgin R
The Bad News Bears PG-13
Cinderella Man PG-13
The Dukes of Hazzard PG-13
Empire Falls NR
Four Brothers R
The Honeymooners PG-13
The Island PG-13
Must Love Dogs PG-13
The Polar Express G
Serenity PG-13


See you in 10 to 20...

[adam]

Or did I misunderstand this completely?

Browse through some of the other articles on that site and you'll understand.

[gll99]

Warning spoiler below




























































Shyt.................

Did I get caught by that joke site?. Yes!!!!!

Funny thing is that I once explained the joke to someone else

[Faustus]

The Onion is making a movie BTW.

[zzyzzx]

Or did I misunderstand this completely?

Browse through some of the other articles on that site and you'll understand.

[gll99]

@zzyzzx

They had me hooked with the line MythBusters team struck down by Zeus. Why wouldn't I believe the RIAA stuff :P

[drjtech]

The Onion isn't called "America's Finest News Source" for nothing.

Several times foreign news services have cited the Onion as source for political news stories. That's usually funnier than the original Onion article.

-drj

[thecoalman]

Several times foreign news services have cited the Onion as source for political news stories.

Reminds me about the town in California that tried to ban Dihydrogen Monoxide based on this website:

http://www.dhmo.org/

Story here:

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/16/1419252&mode=thread&tid=133&tid=186

Dihydrogen Monoxide is also know as water....

[SquirrelDip]

Several times foreign news services have cited the Onion as source for political news stories.

Any examples?

[drjtech]

Here's one:


http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,63048,00.html

The article in the Beijing Evening News told a shocking story of American hubris: Congress was behaving like a petulant baseball team and threatening to bolt Washington, D.C., unless it got a new, modern Capitol building, complete with retractable roof.

There was a problem with the story. Rather than do his own original reporting, Evening News writer Huang Ke had cribbed, nearly word for word, his text from an American publication. And as if that wasn't bad enough, Ke hadn't bothered to vet the source he had plagiarized: The Onion.

In September 2002, The Onion ran a piece called, "Al-Qaida Allegedly Engaging in Telemarketing." The piece told of the terrorist organization's nefarious plan to raise funds through various phone scams. It also showed screenshots of a videotape the CIA had uncovered in which al-Qaida's second in command, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, is seen with a headset, presumably tricking an unsuspecting victim.

"We had known about al-Qaida's practice of raising money through drug trafficking and money laundering, but it seems the full scope of their depravity had barely been imagined," the story fictitiously quoted CIA Director George Tenet saying.

The regular Onion reader likely read the story, laughed and moved on. But to those unfamiliar with The Onion, such stories can be alarming.

Thus, upon seeing the story, the Branch County sheriff's department in Coldwater, Michigan, which had been investigating telemarketing scams targeting the elderly, issued an urgent press release.

"In the course of this investigation, it was learned that this is going on throughout the United States, and some of these telemarketing programs are believed to be operated by al-Qaida," the release stated. "The CIA has announced that they acquired a videotape showing al-Qaida members making phone solicitations for vacation home rentals, long-distance telephone service, magazine subscriptions and other products."

The joke was on the sheriff's department, which, after the release was written up in the local paper and hit the national wires, was bombarded with phone calls about the story.

"I was working on several telemarketing scams that were going on here with our elderly," says Branch County detective Dan Nichols, who wrote the release. "In researching this, I came across this story. I didn't have a source on the story. I hadn't heard of The Onion. It appeared to me to be a legitimate news story, so I passed (it) along."

That's part of why The Onion's stories are so often taken for real news, says Kolb.

-drj

[Doramius]

If this were real IMDB.com would be in a lot of legal trouble.