The Gauntlet Pledges To Discontinue Support Of Labels Who Support The RIAA

In its ongoing war against music pirates fans, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been backing the proposed IP Act. The IP Act is designed to "prevent online threats to economic creativity and theft of intellectual property." If passed into law, it would give the government the authority to shut down not only sites that it deems to be distributing copyrighted materials, but also sites that link to them. So in essence, by me linking to The Pirate Bay to download all your Limp Bizkit mp3's, The Gauntlet can be seized with no trial, no notice, no warning and the site become RIAA property. Just poof, it's gone. Even though I am not involved in hosting, pirating, or even advocating that you download the entire discography from Godsmack, I can lose The Gauntlet. You think it won't happen, it already has.

The RIAA are continually being exposed as thieves and yet their tactics don't stop. So for the month of June, I will not cover a single release from a label under the RIAA's jurisdiction. Consider your bands and labels banned. I have notified friends who I have worked with at labels for years of this and they were outraged to say the least that planned coverage, interviews, features, and album reviews will not be happening. To the bands that are caught in the middle, stop sitting idly by watching your fans be expelled from college because they are fans and wanted your music. I'll guarantee every member of every band out there has pirated music at one time or another whether via tape trading or digital downloads. There have even been label heads exposed of piracy. I realize it is a problem, but seizing domain names, petitioning for laws against the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution, and suing fans is not the answer. Piracy might be a problem, but this is not the answer.

"The fundamental problem is that copyright pretends that information is property."
Ian Clarke, Creator of FreeNet

Thank you to fellow redditors who pointed out a great resource for knowing if a release/label/artist is a member of the RIAA. Check out www.riaaradar.com. Also The Electronic Frontier Foundation can use your support. They are fighting the RIAA to see to it that the internet remains free and your rights are protected and not sold out to the highest bidder.


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Tags:  piracy, sb 550, riaa  

Jason Fisher    June 03, 2011