BRAINWASHED.COM CALLS FOR THE DISMANTLING OF THE RIAA

[rec|use]

BRAINWASHED.COM CALLS FOR THE DISMANTLING OF THE RIAA
The actions and arguments of the Recording Industry Association of America and some of its most powerful members exemplify a complete and utter disregard and contempt for the interests and behavior of musicians, independent record labels, and, most importantly, the music-buying public. The RIAA seeks to regulate the behavior of consumers and actors in a free market via unreasonable means and at their expense, financially and otherwise. Its claims of supporting "creative vitality" and "artists' rights" are disengenuous, as the RIAA represents the corrupt and exclusionary oligopoly of major record labels, Hollywood film studios, and corporate entertainment media outlets. That certain "indie" labels have membership in this association is not indicative of an RIAA looking out for their best interests.

Among our grievances...

The assault on legitimate free market consumer behavior, including fair use "ripping" of digital files for individual portable electronic music players and laptops, (See: "RIAA Says Ripping CDs to Your iPod is NOT Fair Use", Electronic Frontier Foundation, February 15, 2006)

The shameful practice of suing music fans and their families (particularly when the target is underage) for unreasonable punitive sums so as to make examples of them (See: "Internet activists help get lawyer for woman accused of piracy", Associated Press, January 26, 2006)

The "copy protection" schemes of major record labels, antithetical to legitimate consumer behavior and supported by the RIAA, that go so far as to violate the privacy rights of our citizenry (See: "Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far", Mark Russinovich's Sysinternals Blog, October 31, 2005 and "Are You Infected by Sony-BMG's Rootkit?", Electronic Frontier Foundation, November 9, 2005)

The criminal "payola" scandal, perpetrated by major record labels in collusion with corporate entertainment media entities, where artists received unfair preferential treatment on public airwaves (See: "Sony Settles Payola Investigation", Press Release, Office of New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, July 25, 2005

The exorbitant and near-extortionary pricing strategies of major label compact discs, which in and of themselves facilitate so-called "bootlegging" (See: "Poll Examines Music Buyers and Their Needs", Associated Press, February 2, 2006)

The vendetta against hip hop "mix tape" culture, which includes bullying producers with threats of legal action, as well as facilitating raids and arrests of retailers and other actors maintaining the integrity of this time honored musical tradition and promotional tool (See: "Untold Story of Mondo Kim's Raid", The Village Voice, June 16, 2005 )
The RIAA and the aforementioned colluding oligopolists are enemies of music and of consumer rights, therefore we at Brainwashed.Com call for the immediate dismantling of the RIAA.


We call for all recording artists and independent labels that are currently members of the RIAA to immediately separate from this group in an act of protest, hopefully to form a more progressive association that better represents their interests.

We call on music lovers worldwide not to purchase the products of major record labels and to ask others to do the same.

We call on individuals who own stock in the oligopolists cited above, in mutual funds or otherwise, to divest immediately and refuse to invest further.
We call on the United States Congress to halt all ruling on DMCA until there are more organizations at the table deciding these laws which apply to the entire music industry.

The undersigned individuals agree with these statements and stand with Brainwashed.Com in solidarity against the RIAA.


To sign the petition, email us with your name, email address, city, and zip code. This information will not be made public NOR will it be used in a database NOR will you be contacted by Brainwashed.com and its affiliates NOR will you be added to ANY "spam" email lists. We guarantee that.


Additionally, we may be contacted with any questions pertaining to this action





go here to sign
http://brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_contact&Itemid=3

[elasticwings]

http://p2pnet.net/story/8247

It's nice to see one of the lawsuit targets fighting back and doing well. I hope this person wins not only the suit against her, but I hope she nails them in the countersuit she started too.

[elasticwings]

Looks like the MPAA made a big screw up. I don't know who this guy is, but I'm glad they finally picked the wrong person in that they picked somebody that knows shit about computers and has plenty of money to actually take it to court.

http://www.digitalpoint.com/~shawn/2006/04/mpaa-offers-to-settle-again.html

[elasticwings]

Oh and while I'm at it this morning. Imagine that, Sony screwing artists out of the percentage they are supposed to recieve from iTunes and other download services.

http://www.mp3.com/news/stories/4310.html