Reader comments

I just want to thank you, and I am totally 100% in support of you. I will be sure that everybody is hearing about this at school this Monday. Down with the RIAA!!!!! - Josh Souza

I figured I should do what I can to help you in the effort. Therefore, I attached a PDF of the flyer you have posted on your website. That way, instead of posting lots of formats that require pay-software, you can post a universal document which may be viewed with free readers.

Regards,
Colby Jordan

Hey, guys, I stumbled across your website while fuming over articles on the internet about radio station payola. I must say, good for you, absolutely, for maintaining this site. I've been telling people all along that Napster is good for artists because it gets people to their shows and exposes their music to listeners that aren't going to hear it on their bullshit local ClearChannel affiliate.

I play with a band called Mason Brothers in Richmond, VA. We're not what any record exec would call "marketable" - no hot chick out front, no crazy antics, no long hair, no gimmicky hooks at all. We're just a 7-piece band that writes great songs, and who'd want to hear that, right? It is frustrating as a fringe artist to encounter roadblock after roadblock as you try to make your way through the world of musical performance.

I have felt for years that it was just plain bizarre that such a lack of talent was being rewarded in the music industry. How could so many people be so blatantly manipulated by middle-management suits into thinking that "American Idol" is worth a damn musically? Why isn't Ashlee Simpson pelted with tomatoes every time she's near a microphone? Why does anyone think actresses who can't even act sing great songs, too? Does anyone actually believe that Three Doors Down truly rocks? I could go on and on. . .

Sour grapes? Yeah, a little. . .I can admit to that. Mason Brothers will rise above this, and so will all the other bands like us that are forced into the background. The reason for that, I am convinced, is through file sharing over the internet. It is our only real chance to get heard, and I'd like to applaud you folks at dontbuycds.org for sticking up for us, for all of us.

Sincerely,

Zak Billmeier
Mason Brothers, Richmond, VA
www.masonbrothers.org

Hello,

I am a classical music fanatic and, presently, the only really practical way of obtaining recordings of my favourite performances is through cds. I have long suspected that, since the conversion from vinyl, that the per unit profit margins for music have skyrocketed. I think that if the general public actually knew how much profit was being skimmed out of this medium, it would be scandalized.

Despite being suspicious, I haven't been able to track down much raw data on profit to cost ratios of cds. My suspicion is that the profit margin is probably among the highest, if not by far the highest, of any consumer product on the market today. I know at least that, since the introduction of cds, the cost to produce the has dropped dramatically, to about one third what it was initially. The real cost, furthermore, of production is (I think, without knowing) much lower than it was to produce vinyl records, yet even now, 25 years or more since they were introduced, the price of cds remains considerably higher.

I would be very grateful if you could direct me to internet sources for facts and figures about cd pricing and profit margins.

Thank you.

Oleg M. Roslak

Dear Oleg,

As you have observed, information like this not easy to obtain in a definitive form, but some of it is available if you dig. Here is an article that says pressing and packaging a disk costs major labels about 80 cents, and small independent labels between $1.50 and $2.50 in US dollars. That is a huge markup indeed. http://www.negativland.com/minidis.html

The labels deny these figures, claiming all kinds of costs beyond pressing and packaging, but they can never explain why LP and cassette cost more to produce, but retail for less. Here is the industry's take by a producer named Miles Copeland. I think it is baloney, but here goes. http://www.riaa.com/news/guestcolumns/milescopeland.asp I think it is also important to note that no royalties have to be paid to Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and other classical composers whose works are in the public domain. For that reason alone classical music CDs, your favorite, should not cost a lot.

Instead of just having to decide which to believe, let's look at CD duplication services. Here are two that give examples of pricing without you submitting a bid first.

http://st14.startlogic.com/~forgerec/cds/cd_pricing.htm
http://www.diskfaktory.com/enter/024/default.asp?AffID=024

Their pricing gets cheaper and cheaper as the quantity goes up. This supports that claim that it costs the big labels less than a dollar, considering that they press thousands at a time, and some labels own the equipment so they don't have to outsource manufacturing. You may be able to find more information by Google or Yahoo, but the recording industry goes to great lengths to hide their real costs from the public and artists. It is scandalous. By the way, would you like me to put your letter on reader comments?

Sincerely,
Matthew Brown
Webmaster of Dontbuycds

Matthew,

Feel free to put my comments on reader comments.

There is one other thing to add about royalties not owing on classical music. Many of the recordings re-issued by the majors still retail for more than vinyl used to. However, the reissues are often of legendary recordings, which, in addition to not requiring composer royalties, are often 50+ years old. Thus, the costs incurred in producing them were written off long ago, and, if actually over 50, are (in Canada and the UK, at least) public domain. The 50 year rule in particular has created some downward pressure on prices from the majors, since companies like Naxos (God bless them) collect multiple copies of pristine 78s from private collectors of public domain recordings to produce a pristine cd transfer, and reissue these at bargain prices. This has forced companies like EMI to do their own reissues at about half the price they used to charge (which is equal to Naxos standard retail price) in order to compete. So far, however, EMI has not done this with all of its reissues. In fact, sometimes I will actually break down and pay double the price Naxos charges to have the EMI release, because they occasionally create the better transfer as they have exclusive possession of the master tapes (although no longer the exclusive right to sell and license the material).

I have a lot to thank Naxos for, and now Brilliant Classics as well. These labels are committed to releasing music at affordable prices. Brilliant, in particular, retails at no more than CDN $5 per cd ( = US $4). They seem to be extremely diligent at scouring the earth for unused music licenses, charging bargain prices for their releases, and still somehow succeeding in the marketplace.

What I find particularly galling is that lowering prices (at least in the classical music market) possibly won't even hurt the labels' bottom line in any serious way. As anyone who has even only a very basic grasp of economics knows, lowering the price of a product will increase the number of units sold. Thus the current approach to classical music marketing appears to be self-destructive. They keep the price artificially high to create an "image" of exclusivity. This only means, however, that they shrink the potential market for this music, which I firmly believe exists, if only more people could afford to be exposed to it.

My hope is that companies like Naxos and Brilliant can drive the majors into bankruptcy. They seem to have a healthy awareness that keeping prices affordable actually stimulates growth in their target markets. If only the majors had the good fortune to hire some intelligent accountants.

Oleg M. Roslak

Toronto, Canada

Heyllo again!

Remember I mentioned a law in France which would make all file-sharing illegal and subject to heavy fines? Well the Parliament just overturned it and is asking for an amendment. This amendment, if passed, would make file-sharing absolutely legal!!

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=avOoTq8aXkU8&refer=europe

The situation will probably keep being updated, but if you could post this on your website it would be great. Maybe other French people will see it, and if the amendment IS passed France would be (for once) an example for more nations to follow!

-LM

Hey, I just though I would inform you guys of a new law in France which
makes "anti-copy" programs on CDs legal. This includes programs which
won't even let you play the CD on a PC or a MAC :( It also plans to
treat every and any copied music as copyright theft and would induce
very heavy and severe fines. Even if the music is just on your PC.
Furthermore, tracking devices will also be allowed which will give out
info of what music you are playing, with what program, etc.
I find this really sad, but I'm also glad there are websites likes yours
that are a stand against the greedy music businessmen. Tomorrow I'm
going to take some sellotape and stick those flyers up ^_^

In your "letters from readers" section someone also suggests that
artists should sell their songs online directly. I find this a brilliant
idea! After all many other websites already sell downloadable music
online. It would be easy for artists to do the same; they could even
sell individual tracks, or a whole album... This method of sale makes
sense, when nowadays so many people use MP3 players and computers to
play their music. Plus it would attract much more traffic to their
website, and more people would be likely to buy other merchandise
(t-shirts etc) and check out their concert dates, and so on. They could
also directly control their income - raising or lowering the price of
their album/individual singles according to its popularity. I'm sure
paying a manager or a record company costs the same, if not more, than
setting up a website on a server with enough bandwidth.

Keep up the good work!!

-LM

Sony has given a good reason not to buy CDs

By utilizing a rootkit to hide its DRM software from its customers, Sony has
given us a compelling reason not to buy CDs anymore--as if there weren't
enough good reasons already. It's ironic that one of the RIAA's favorite
arguments against P2P is that it opens you up to spyware and viruses--but now,
thanks to Sony, you can get malware just by putting an audio CD into your
computer. It's as if Sony is encouraging piracy. With this kind of "reward"
for being honest and paying for music, Sony can be assured that a lot of
people will never make that mistake again.

jstanley

Recording industry Association of America

1330 Connecticut Ave NW

Washington, DC 20036

To Whom It May Concern:

My mother always told me, "If you can't say something nice about someone or something, don't say anything at all." Fortunately, I finally found something positive to say about your fight against the common man's intention to fairly use the products he purchased from your member companies. It did take a while to do so, but here it is:

Because of your actions and my decision to boycott your companies due to those actions, I have found a wealth of songs by independent artists who allow some of their songs to be downloaded for free. It's kind of a "try-before-you-buy" feature.

Because of your actions, I have now been listening to such great songwriters/singers as Voltaire (who I listen to instead of "Weird Al" Yankovic and Tom Lehrer), Inkubus/Sukkubus (who has replaced Rumors of the Big Wave as a great Pagan song group), and others.

And NOT because of your actions but because I want to support these independent artists, I not only listen to their music, but I buy their CDs and merchandise. This ensures THESE people get my money and support to keep on creating their great works of art.

I would like to end this letter by asking you to read two books. (I am an avid reader myself, and have already read these. And will read and reread them again and again.) The first is "Free Culture" by Lawrence Lessig. In it, Lessig goes over why your actions will not only fail, but will ultimately bring about the destruction of your organization. (You can get this book for free at http://www.free-culture.cc/freecontent/.) The second book (in a lighter vein) is "Soul Music" by Terry Pratchett. In it, you will find three different characters that seem to relate to this problem: Dibbler (a greedy agent), the treasurer of the Musician's Guild (who threatened the characters who wouldn't pay the exorbitant guild fees) and Bud Y Holly (who insisted that music is art and should be there for people's enjoyment).

Anyway, when (if) you change the way you deal with your customers, I might start buying your products again. But don't count on it.

Dennis Yates

Recently I purchased a new Ford Focus 2005 model,
included was... get this... a MP3 CD player system. Plays
every mp3 I throw at it. Apparently the vehicle manufacturer
Ford is not in bed with the RIAA else they would not include
MP3 systems in new vehicles, right? I must say that I have
converted every single CD that I own to mp3 format cause
I don't want to wear my CD's. And no I don't share my music.
CD's are too expensive to begin with and I just can't afford to
buy new ones when a worn one goes out. As for copy protection
on music is wrong wrong wrong. If you buy a CD you own it, you
should be allowed to make backup copies of your music. If you
can't do that, you don't own the CD, and that's called renting.

As for the MPAA, guys, the actors make too much money
to begin with, how about you start paying them 10 bux
per hour like normal people and make they actually work
for a living. If I ever go to the movies again, I haven't been
there since I was a child, I want quality movies, actors that
can actually act, nothing that's manufactured in a special
effects studio, sure the movies look cool, but the actors
are like walking stiffs, I see more life from a zombie in the
night of the living dead. I find movies that was made
20-30-40 years ago hold up better then new ones.

Just my 2cents

Matt

Hello,

I am writing to say how DISGUSTED I am with the recording industry!

I bought this cd from Sanity and it had this copy protection on it, which installs this weird player; if I click cancel it ejects the disc. Me being who I am, was very simple to get past it; I mean come on Suncomm has to be the stupidest company if it was easily "cracked"

That’s not why I am angry though; I’m angry because I have friends who are independent, and they are tired of not getting any exposure anywhere because of the "public interest" bands. Public interest? I don't really like half the trash that comes out, and if I ever had kids, I would not want them listening to it. I hate them, so suck, and they WILL be taught a lesson. If they commit a crime, they should be punished HARDER then if we do it because they are a big corporation who should know better. Also, from looking at some sites I found out about a lawyer who made a pretty good point and has a pretty good way at how big corporation should be punished.

He says that if corporation do something wrong, they should be shut down for a period of time. It also argues that it would affect peoples jobs; well they wont do it again if people complain about losing their jobs, and the corporation wont do it again, or try and hide there illegal activities.

On P2P, there is a lot of "illegal software, music and DVD's" Its only illegal if you don’t own it. But I believe in try before you buy, if I don’t like it, return it; or in this case delete it. As of today I am no longer buying a single disc from any member of the RIAA or any similar branches. TRY BEFORE YOU BUY people; there is nothing wrong with it. I even bought heaps of CDs as a result, but only independent music.

Stefan,

Australia

Note to readers: Most comments posted here are from thoughtful, articulate people and are generally supportive. Sometimes however, we get hate mail from small minds barely capable of putting together a sentence. Here is one example with expletives censored, presented for your amusement.

eat s***

First of all I would like to say "You guys are f***ing stupid"

I'm not even sure what planet your from.

I put locks on my door cuz I know someone might take my television. You
little grubby net nerds have been hi-jacking copyright material for a long
time now. Your taking someones hard work. You guys act like you have the
right to share copyrighted material and the record industry is the big bad
wolf or something lol. I have an idea. How about you go out and buy a cd if
you like that artist. Support the artists that you enjoy. The only reason
why you would rip your music onto your computer is so you can trade it for
something else. Or perhaps to put it on an mp3 player? Well you can go BUY
music in digital form from many difference sources.

Go f*** yourselves.

David

Now, back to the kind of letters that are worth our time.

Hi there! I'm about half way through reading your site (Which I so far think is great). I've just come across where
you've said a copy protected CD went to #1 in June 2004 (Velvet Revolver "Contraband") and you've told people not
to buy it. Well, I'm not just suggesting this because I'm a fan of the band, but I have a more fair suggestion. I
have the Australian pressing and it DOES NOT contain any copy protection I know of. So, my suggestion is maybe to
recommend buying an Aussie import instead. That's all, thank you!

Keep up the good work

-Ben

You pwn

I love how you are displaying the truth. KoRn, in their
video "Ya'll Want a Single" it shows them destroying a CD store.
Nice vid. If you don't like the band, just watch the video. I have
to quote them...

"We are the ones breaking you down
We are the hope to drown out your sounds
All across the world, you fed what you found
All across the world, we're breaking you down..."

Nice song. Really sounds familiar. I just hate what America has
become now. A place full of no freedom and greed. America: Land of
the Greed, is what I think it has become. Don't get me wrong, I
love the country, just not what it has become. I could press on,
but I don't want to offend and more pencil pushing lawyers and
perhaps others I have already offended. I personally download
music and already have maybe 100 files using a program called
WinMX. It does not always download files, but it is free, and I
have to say, worth the download. Shockingly, Velvet Revolver songs
are on the program, not that I know they will download.

Nintendofann11

Questions from a lawyer...

Dear All,

First, don’t jump to conclusions because of my title. By first right, I was (still am) a recording musician for the last 22 years of my life. In edition, I have worked on the inside of the music business this site is so down on. With that stated, I understand the argument from both sides of the fence.

I have looked at several business models over the past five (5) years geared toward “changing the music industry.” However, I have yet to see a true successful model. I am greatly interested in seeking the power of the internet, file sharing, to promote “new” artists, but it is very allusive and nonexistent. Individuals have attempted to thrust different bands at my doorstep and say “file sharing made this bands career,” but I can never get the numbers to prove it.

Music is a business. Artists need money to eat, live and make their music. Record companies need money to pay the artists, the royalties, business expenses (as illegal as some may be) and make a profit, hopefully. This is reality. At least today’s reality. CD sales have dropped because of file sharing. Regardless of your reasoning as to “why” we should file share, under present law it is theft. The sooner that is embraced and accepted the sooner you, your supporters and this website can make a difference.

Currently, radio, films and television deliver the “new artists” to the world. This costs money. Most of the people who file share are searching for music or artists already known to them via the above means in some way or another. They cannot search for someone they don’t know! Make sense? It should, because that is where the real dilemma begins.

How do you make known to the world “Joe and the Dyno Mutts” AND make money doing it? You cannot just place a song of the group on a file sharing network and expect them to take off. It doesn’t work. Why? No one knows them. Therefore, “Joe and the Dyno Mutts” will not have a music career that lasts very long.

Until that is solved, the industry will not change. I would love to be able to find the elusive missing link and bring the industry up to date. However, investing money in a losing idea is not ideal for my future generations. I would encourage any thoughts and comments that would be helpful to resolve the missing step between the music industry and file sharing.

Sincerely searching for an answer,

William D. Vaughn, Esq.

vaughnlawfirm@charterinternet.com

To the kind attention of the staff of www.dontbuycds.org

Dear DONTBUYCDS staff,

It’s a real pleasure to invite you to visit GIOP’s Official Website, a new project that want to re-create true, screw, simple and genuine art of “roots” reggae … similar to the original one of 30 years ago.

Real passion melodies, real instruments and just few digital effects: we want that the quality of our music depends just by the skill of the band (at this project took part some of the most important Italian reggae musicians, maybe you have already heard some of them…).

The project is focused on the genuine art of reggae (influenced by Bradley Nowell’s Sublime Stylee too!), with no commercial ties of any genre… to create a pure and free product that reflects the expressive necessities of the band members at 100%.

Lyrics examine the nowadays “sad” music system, principally ruled by economic interests. This is a “sad” reality that the musicians are constricted to follow… if they want to work and live with music.

We suggest you to listen to songs "People From Jamaica" (first single), "Tell Me" and “Look Inside The Blue” cause they clearly reflect our “roots” conception.

In alternative we suggest “Cunning Solution” (very conscious lyrics) and “Over My Head”, more influenced by rocksteady.

"Face The Music" (EP) album is full downloadable on the website… for free: in fact the good thing of music made just for passion… is that it can be decided to be given as a present.

So this is our present for you and for all true reggae musicians and lovers … that make music first of all for passion, then for money!

AS BOB SAID: “WHO MAKES MUSIC THINKING TO MONEY, HIS MUSIC WILL LOSE ITS VALUE.”

RESPECT.

GIOP’s Band

www.giops.net

I'm glad that other people besides me are standing up to this. I've been file-sharing since I was twelve and I'm
lucky that I didn't get into trouble. File-sharing is no different than people taping something off TV. I sure
hope the RIAA changes their strict ways.

I think I figured out the real reason why the RIAA hates file sharing. I can definitely say that my buying habits have increased TREMENDOUSLY thanks to file sharing, but then I realized what I've been buying - bands on labels such as Nuclear Blast, Century Media, The End, and other smaller labels. Labels not with the RIAA. Whoops.

Mike

I found your site after surfing the web for "buy CDs" I have a few comments after reading your stance on the music industry, etc. First of all, I agree, the radio industry sucks, and there isn't a single old jazz or blues station in my listening market. Second, rock music apparently is a dying monster. It seems like every time I turn around, they are taking rock stations off the air, and then making these "corporate" rock stations that play the same top 40 schmooze over and over again until we are sick of the songs. My question is why don't they play other songs by a Top 40 artist, not just the same 40 song play list. Also, many stores are definitely asking too much for a CD. The majority of an albums cost is the packaging, which most people don't bother with because the booklets are too small to see pictures or read lyrics.

Now for the disagreements/bad stuff. Computers were never intended to be the primary stereo system in someone's home, or while traveling with a laptop. While there are some who play CDs through the computer, most people try to save the songs onto a hard drive, thus having access to many songs without having to change out a CD each time. The problem arises when songs get converted to MP3. The max sound level for most MP3s is 160 to 192 kbps, and is nowhere near the quality sound of a CD, therefore it makes the point of buying a CD useless if you are going to listen to the music in this format. Plus, I myself have downloaded songs from various sites before, and have run into several issues with file trading. Number one, its a haven for viruses created by people with too much time on their hands. Number two, consumers are misinformed by the labels on certain files because the person they are sharing from doesn't know how to look up the correct artist and song title. Number three, a lot of the song sources are crap. I can't imagine ten years from now if MP3s are the only form of music and people pay for such crappy sound, in addition to having crappy recordings from the source.

People trade songs online for rare and hard to find tracks. This has been a peeve of mine about the record industry for years. Many artists catalogs have yet to be fully released/reissued on CD, and I have a whole wish list of rare stuff that I wish the record companies would release. The reason they don't? Not enough demand for the product. Hell, if you can go online and just download the rare songs, that should be enough to appeal to the one percenters right? What's the point in remastering them? Sound quality! You can find cassettes and vinyl cheaper now because hardly anyone uses that medium anymore. Cassettes fade out after a couple of plays, and I have had this discussion with a few people that still cling to vinyl. If I wanted to listen to vinyl, or those first issue mid 80's CDs, or MP3s with the sound quality as poor as 64 kbps, I'd rather listen to AM radio....there is NO comparison to the sonic quality of a remastered CD. Unfortunately, some remasters are not even released in this country because of the lack of demand, and when people continue to promote the growth of file trading/sharing, there will be no demand for CDs anymore, so hang on to your Sgt. Pepper CDs, because someday they will be obsolete, right?

Stop me if you've heard this one...

I have a theory.

Posit: Online distribution is the most cost effective means for
distributing digital content

Effect: This invalidates the modern recording company business model,
making them nothing more than an overblown marketing firm.

Result: Artists can now directly sell thier music to thier fans, and use an
independent 3rd party (or multiple 3rd parties) to market it if they wish.

The problem, of course, is that the recording industry will not just go
quietly into that good night. They will spend every last dollar trying to
convince artists, legislators, and consumers that they only way to sell
music is _their_ way, and any other way is
illegal/immoral/unethical/unamerican. And they have done a pretty good job
of convincing the first two groups that they are right.

So how do you fight this? Well, in order to have a commercially viable
business model, you really only need two things, a producer and a consumer.
The consumers are already onboard. Because of Napster and it's progeny,
they see the benefits of online distribution. They like it and they want
more. But while consumers beg for open, uncrippled digital music, they are
force fed things like PressPlay and Rhapsody. So how do we cut out the
middleman?

The answer, I believe, lies in the producer<->consumer connection. And if
the artists will not come to us, we must go to them. I propose that we
start a listing of mailing addresses for artists who have had thier music
shared on the Internet. The purpose of these listings is to allow consumers
to directly contribute to the people who created the music...the artists.
We should encourage people to send a check, cash, or money order, directly
to the artist, in the amount of the percentage of retail sales that the
artists would have received for digital music that has been downloaded.
Some estimates for this amount are as little as $0.05 a CD, so paying for
an entire collection of digital music would probably not cost more than
$100.00, but it would be money given directly to those who create the music
that we love.

I believe that artists will respond to this. Once the checks start piling
up, they'll start to wonder why they're giving such a large percentage of
thier hard earned income to record companies who do little more than act as
middlemen between them and thier fans. They'll start to wonder if selling
the music themselves directly to the fans would be possible and maybe, just
maybe, a few of them will break from the herd and run headlong toward
financial and artistic freedom.

Ben Rady

To Anyone who cares:
I'm a man of few words so I'll keep it simple.
I'm 21 & fairly loaded for my age. I like to spend $$$ & I love music. In fact, I had a t-shirt made that says "Music is the closest thing to God on Earth". Anyhow, I probably purchase on AVERAGE 8-10 CDS EVERY MONTH (I said I loved music). The point is that Share programs such as Napster only opened my eyes to new music forms. Some of which are now my favorite bands & most of them smaller bands. As my eyes were opened to new music I started to buy more music (funny how that works). My point is that this whole ordeal is soooo American. I guess Metallica wasn't rich enough so now the rich get richer & those smaller bands that I fell so in love with will never get a record deal because people will continue to not know who they are. That's the biggest injustice of them all. Up & coming bands thank you Lars, for never getting to rock out like you have, & you know for being such a bully you're really not that big of a guy. Oh, don't forget that many of these hypocrites screaming about the Napster dilemma were once major liberals, or do nothing but dub other people's music...the list goes on. Kind of ironic for a singer to stick his or her foot in their own mouth. PIGS I tell ya, PIGS! Hey Lars, there is no such thing as an original thought. You are not the son of God. You listened to other music when you were young & that is where you got the ideas that made up the music you played. It's called "Inspiration". It's just sad that at the rate you're going the only thing you'll have to listen to when your old is Metallica. I just hope it doesn't all sound like Saint Anger (that shit was weak yo).

Peace, Love, & Music

Jesse Anderson - Moline, IL

Oh, one other thing. Don't be afraid to tell these jokers what's what.
We the people...................................................................
KIR

A customer's letter to the labels.

Well I just purchased the following 2 CD's at my local shop Alfie's "Do You
Imagine Things?" and Sondre Lerche's "Two Way Monologue". I will no longer be
supporting any artists that are on your label. The CD won't play on my PC
without doing an install of the software you have provided. I bought a music cd
and not software. If I prefer Windows Media Player for my music CD's then so be
it, you cannot force me to use the software you have provided and hence you
have lost a customer.

Your fear of piracy has lead you to paranoia and down the wrong path. How do
you think I have heard of bands such as Alfie and Sondre Lerche and went out
and purchased their CD's.

Here are the steps
Go to www.allmusic.com
lookup an artist I know and like
look at the similar artist section
click on a band
read their bio and album reviews
download a some of their songs in mp3 format and listen to them
like what I hear go out and purchase the album
don't like what I hear delete mp3's
(I used to go to amazon.com to listen to a 30 sec sample but that is not enough
to make an informed decision).

Go to concert when in town.

Artist gets money and I have artwork and music. I refuse to download mp3's from
a pay service as the cost is too high in my opinion and a connection to the
band is lost.

As for my ticket to an upcoming Sondre Lerche concert, I have given it away.
It's just too bad that I can't get my money back for it.

Please read the attached pdf to enlighten yourselves as to the effects of
downloaded music.

No longer buying or supporting your artists and not downloading

Marijan Madunic

Your site is in violation of 18 USC 1030

Nevermind the subject, I thought I'd be a smart ass..

I enjoy your web site. It's very nice to see that people are actually
standing up against these assholes in the industry. I literally laughed
audibly after reading the bill to make P2P programs a felony and
recording in theatres a federal offense. The RIAA is a tyrant. Destroy
them. :) Speaking of, these bills are only going to slow the
activities in the US.. I can promise that other countries are going to
laugh at something like this. Hell, SuSE in Germany has already said
they are not going to stop working on their Linux distribution;
basically giving the SCO the finger. I love it. I use SuSE. The SCO can
bite me. To date, I haven't seen them produce any proof that Linux
distributions are copied directly from UNIX in such a way they violate
copyrights. The SCO hasn't cared all this time that there are so many
Linux distributions-- they even released their own.

What I found highly amusing about the bit with the RIAA is that they
could subpoena me for downloading music.. music that I legally have a
right to, as I have purchased the CD in the past. You can browse my MP3
directory and you're not going to find 60 gigs of MP3s, I only download
what I've owned before. I'd love to be in court for that one, the RIAA
would be hit back nice and hard for several millions.

Welcome to America, where you can live free.. as long as you don't use a
computer for anything other than talking (Within guidelines. See
carnivore/DCS1000). It's literally to the point I have to write my own
bloody encryptions and chat programs just to talk to friends and family
to ensure they're actually PRIVATE conversations. How pathetic is that?
That in a land where we are supposed to be so free, you can't talk to
your own friends or family without fear of Big Brother listening,
looking to take you down for conspiracy or what ever bullshit offense?
I've been contacted by my ISP before and told that I was involved in
illegal activities and must stop immediately. (Checked the headers and
confirmed it with them, it was a legit e-mail from then.) I like to
learn as much as possible. This includes things that could be considered
terrorist-like or illegal under privacy acts. Just because I read it
doesn't mean I do it.. and just because I read it, I'm flagged for it.
Then if I talk about it to my friends, as they share my interests, then
it's conspiracy? What the hell?

Standing up against the RIAA [and SCO] is a great step. I'm already
there, and I hope everyone else gets there too. It won't be long before
people are writing and releasing extremely nasty viruses that don't just
ask for a cookie, but render the information on your system useless--
and I bet they'll contain strings like "**** THE RIAA" or "DOWNLOAD
MP3S". I'm rather steamed that I can't even use a really powerful
encryption, it's illegal. I can't say certain things online, or I get
nailed for conspiracy to commit, or pinned down related to some other
crime that's already happened.. like the guy who had all his computers
taken from the FBI under the belief he hacked and stole the HL2 source
code. Gee. I wish I could have the FBI kicking doors in for me too when
people tried to hack my servers. I reported over 200 hacking attempts to
the FBI, most low to medium-severity with a handful of high-severity..
several months later, nothing. What a response.. thanks for protecting
me, my company and my users there, guys. *shakefist*

If you'd like, I can whip a site for ya if your server can handle PHP..
nothing much for compensation, maybe just my company logo (Rather small,
won't take up 99% of the site like most advertisements). It looks a bit
like you're trying to keep it rather low bandwidth, though. Up to you.
Love the site.

-Michael Martinek ("Akede")

Hi there Matt,

Just found your site from looking at some BBC letters.

Have you read recently, the British BPI has been throwing it's weight about?

Apparently, CDWOW in Hong Kong is not allowed to sell CDS to English people unless they are licensed for the EU. This only applies in England, so any one else in Europe can buy what they like, from where ever.

There was a big article about it in The Sunday Times Broadsheet recently

Best wishes

Kean

It's not just the recording industry and the RIAA, it's also the movie
industry and the MPAA. I'd boycott them, but the Last Samurai was worth
every penny to see in the theater. Terminator 3 wasn't, and I'd have
gladly pirated it (but my parents payed for the movie).

Also, until there's a good alternative, I'm afraid I will have to buy
CDs (or put them on my Christmas wish list). iTunes just isn't there
yet. What I need is a way to be able to download FLAC files of my
favorite songs, and I'm only willing to pay 10 cents or so. The 99
cents of iTunes is still overpriced, considering what they pay to
provide the service, and it gives me mp3s, which are reduced quality, as
opposed to FLAC, which is as good as the CD.

David Masover

If you could either post this article on your site and/or send it on to groups/communities that may benefit from it I would appreciate it. http://www.mxdwn.com/feature.php?sid=38

Thanks

Fred Pilarczyk

Lars is an idiot

I hate the RIAA, They are a bunch of liars.
I have a little bit of info for them:
An "artist" is someone who creates something for the sake of creating it. If you make something to make money YOU ARE A BUSINESSMAN!
It is poignant how Independent musicians are for file sharing networks, because then their music is exposed, and Yet the RIAA claims P2Ps hurt sales.

The whole industry works together to fix the price of CDs. How much money do you think Lars actually gets from a Metallica CD? Not much. Considering it costs 20 bux a CD the whole band may make 3$ per CD. That is because all these other people are making the money, record labels, managers, lawyers, retailers, shippers, distributors, advertisers etc etc.
It would be different if they actually charged fair value for a CD they recorded. BUT THEY DON'T!

We need someone to SUE the RIAA for false advertisement. Those commercials they run about "stealing music" and comparing it to strong arm robbery. I would personally spit on whomever designed those adds.

Steve
feel free to post

Dear Sirs!

I'm absolutely agreed with your action. Protection CDs from copying - stupid idea. Some people can make a copy with digital sound cards, but some cannot even play it. So, it looks like many people MUST make illegal copies.

I live in small European country ESTONIA . Here situation more difficult. Simple CD, in shop, costs almost 20 $. 10 years ago average price was 10 $. Biggest part of this price, going to Estonian Authors' Society (EAU) . So, I don't buy CDs in Estonia .

Anyway I support your idea: "A consumer organization boycotting the recording industry".

THX

Felixz

I understand why you guys are pissed, but do you realize that you are not only hurting the labels but all the musicians as well. This is our bread and butter, this is how we pay the bills. It may not hurt the metallicas and britneys of the world but you are killing up and coming bands. The record company sees low sales, so they drop the bands before they can even really get started. You guys keep this up and eventually there won?t be much music. Who will have time to make it if you cant make a living off of it? I agree that something has to be done about the record industry but this is the wrong solution.

-Brad Dunn

My Response:

Dear Brad,

Those of us who are angry with the RIAA and the big labels have a lot of sympathy for musicians, but cannot continue patronizing an industry that treats customers like thieves. They must reform or perish, and that is that. Music existed for millennia before records, and will still exist if the recording industry as it exists today perishes. Have you considered that dontbuycds.org has never asked anyone to boycott concerts? We don't call for that at all. Attending a performance is a great way fans can patronize artists without handing money to the RIAA mafia. Buying CDs from the big labels, naively believing that a few cents will trickle down to artists only encourages the industry to continue abusing us. You will never convince people that buying recordings is a debt we owe. It isn't.

I am wondering if you have read an article by Todd Rungren about these issues? Here is a link. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/music/feature_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2007230 You may also be interested in what Janis Ian had to say in two articles. http://www.janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.html http://www.janisian.com/article-fallout.html Also, Joni Mitchell had something to say. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/2329001.stm

The Todd Rungren piece is new, but Janis Ian and Joni Mitchell said what they did long before the RIAA sued a 12 year old girl, and a kindly old grandmother who had a Mac when Kazaa only runs on PC. They accused her of trading gansta rap. Imagine that!

I am curious. Are you a solo artist, or in a band? If you are on an indie label that is not affiliated with the RIAA, your label is not being boycotted. Check out the non-riaa music sources section on the external links page. Maybe you should ditch the label you are with now, and sign up with one of them.

Sincerely,

Matthew Brown

webmaster of dontbuycds.org

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.10/fileshare.html
Wired News Article about BigChampagne. Mentioned on Slashdot under the header "What the RIAA gets out of filesharing."

I would suggest adding this information to the rant section, in the paragraph discussing the benefits of filesharing. Perhaps also in the "Payola" section--it's slightly off-topic, but has a great deal of relevance when talking about marketing.

And perhaps you've seen the BBC article that claims that music sales are down over ten percent worldwide for the first quarter of 2003? I found it interesting that the author attributed the drop in sales to piracy, especially in light of a headline under "Related News" off to the side: Justin Timberlake is the top seller in the US this year. Pathetic.

About the site itself, I have only one comment: the "External Links" page is rather long. It would be nice to see that slightly better organized.

Ooops! The Yahoo News link, "Music Industry unveils tracking methods" has expired. Better get rid of it.

I do agree that a compact disc boycott is the right action to take. However, I believe that the long-term goal of this movement should be to do away with the recording industry entirely. You mention all of the relevant information but do not draw the larger conclusions from the data: the cost of producing a CD has fallen, the internet and p2p networks provide new, low-cost marketing methods. The level of technical expertise required to produce and distribute music has fallen dramatically.
The record industry exists because originally, the cost of production (including facilities) and marketing were prohibitive on the small scale. Obviously, the way to get larger returns on marketing is to reach a larger consumer base, and the result of both of those principles was the current situation. The **** that passes for "pop" music is also the result of marketing decisions, beginning with the introduction of radio. Radio was a vastly superior marketing method, but air time was limited, and thus extremely competitive. So, if you are a record label spending money on air time, you want to promote the bands and artists that will sell the best. As record labels enlarged, competition grew smaller, and in the absence of competition, the record executives determined more of the radio content. The decisions as to what artists to promote became more and more arbitrary: formula marketing, formula music. Labels began to limit content, based on the idea that people will not buy mus
ic that they deem to be offensive. The converse of that is true, up to a certain point. But it is an immutable law of human nature that you cannot have anything that will appeal to everyone. Auto manufacturers have recently embraced this idea (see MSN article http://www.msnbc.com/news/978276.asp). The record industry failed this test, in their quest for ever-larger profit margins. Along the way, they discovered that, deprived of an alternative, people will buy pretty much anything---and used this against consumers, jacking the cost of a CD far higher than any reasonable estimation of value.

But suddenly, the game has changed: technology has risen to the point where an artist can write, record, produce, market, and distribute an album without ever leaving his or her home.

In other words, the RIAA is obsolete.

The price-fixing strategies have pushed consumers too far, and the backlash is significant. The RIAA has had great success in turning public opinion against themselves, with a series of some of the worst PR moves imaginable.

To sum up: The RIAA is unneccessary and unloved. They will continue to exist only as long as they can continue to litigate.

That's the view from my perspective. You guys have a great site. Keep it up!

-Ten

The RIAA, Dumb and Dumber!

I'm going back to vinyl! Screw it- The RIAA can keep their crappy cd's. I don't want to support the wicked RIAA with any purchases!

Most 12 year olds cannot afford to buy many cd's, so how does this translate to lost sales if they download the music instead?

Jahd Awnster

Excellent Work!

Its great that somebody has finally taken the time to create a website that might sway the balance of ignorant people away from the clutches of the RIAA!

(as most intelligent people already hate those heartless, scheming f***ers anyway)

Silenius

I totally agree with your message. One thing I would like to add is the
RIAA treats the war on piracy like America's war on drugs. They bust little
poor 12 year old girls and college students at the 'end of the chain' for
downloading while there are people selling the CD's on the streets. Do they
even realize how this starts? It's not joe-12-year old in his room ripping a
cd he/she just bought, its groups of organized people with access to
promotional CD's (magazines, radio stations, packaging factories,
warehouses, and even the people involved with major labels) that are
stealing the CD's and releasing them before the official release date! Any
CD that I have been interested in since 1999 (produced by a big recording
label) I had access to days, weeks, even months before it was released!
This was happening way before napster too. If tomorrow, the Internet was
totally shut down, I could still get a pirated CD off the street (ever see
the bootlegging market in Hong Kong? Its crazy and existed before Kazza and
Napster). Online file trading makes no difference, these underground groups
will exist forever and the RIAA can do nothing about that. It's funny that
these Radio stations that are involved in Payola and the RIAA have people
working for them that will risk their job to steal a promo CD. It reminds
me of the movie fight club, all the average joes working together to stick
it to the man. If the RIAA continues with its current practices, I can only
see the situation getting worse.

Al

p.s you have permission to post this and keep up the good work I enjoy your
site.

I've enjoyed your website, and agreed with many of your ideas. I especially
feel that cd's are badly overpriced, and I'm wary that labels may have too
much control over artists - for example, my favorite group reported on their
website that they wrote and practiced over 40 new songs in the past two
years since the last album; Yet the new album, released tomorrow, contains
only 14 songs. why 14?? why not 20, or 23, or 28 of those 40?? probably,
the label.

However, I will not completely stop buying cd's, I will continue to support
my favorite artists.   I just wanted to point out that file-sharing, while I
have engaged in it, is not the ONLY means of "trying before you buy."
Referring again to my favorite group of all, they really take care of their
fans. Five days before release of the new album they emailed everyone who
signed up to their mailing list with a link to a player on their website,
playing the FULL track of each of three songs from the new album. Plus the
video for one of the songs. I agree that full songs are a better measure of
"try before you buy" than the tiny little clips on places like amazon.com
and cdnow.com, and this band provides them to their fans, free. They trust
that those who love them best will continue to support them. Their fan club
also receives incredible benefits at what I think is a very reasonable
price: goodies such as receiving in the mail some time before an album is
released a pre-release teaser disc of 2-3 songs, and every Christmas they
write us a Christmas song and a Merry Christmas letter to go with it. I
really look forward to that annual present in the mail. We also have a
guarantee of tickets to any show they headline - if you buy them through the
fanclub, you'll never be barred from a show because it is sold out. Not to
mention access to the special fanclub-only website, including music,
downloads, pictures, home videos, contests & giveaways, and access to the
band journal - they write to their fans, sometimes as often as once a week!
while on tour, and make home videos of them in the tour bus, setting up for
shows, meeting fans & signing autographs, hanging out on days off, and
non-tour videos of them in the studio.

Why should I go on morpheus or kazaa and try to find songs from the new
album, when i'm going to buy it anyway and they're GIVING me a preview?
(I'm not the sort of person to download all songs before the album comes
out, that ruins the fun of the first listen when the disc is fresh out of
the package on release day.)   I can offer no words of comfort to the RIAA
or to labels in their lament over piracy, but to the artists, I say this:
Love and cherish your fans. Give them what they want - your music. True
fans arent going to burn your cd, they want the "real thing", including
cover art, liner notes, and "extras" (enhanced cd material, included videos,
etc.) Make a fan club, make anything we could download off of p2p or buy
off of ebay obsolete next to what you already give.

Maybe we as fans should encourage more of our favorite artists to do as many
already do - provide a few songs off the album, or as recently New Found
Glory did with their album Sticks and Stones, MOST of the tracks! to listen
to, linked from their website, for FREE. we can try before we buy, and
those of us who like you will definitely buy. (and maybe some artists need
to be reminded that fans are important and SHOULD be loved....)

This doesnt help the issue of finding new artists we never heard of before,
but it would certainly cut down on MY downloads. (by the way though, the
"Other people who bought this item also purchased:" links on amazon I find
to be very useful. Combine THAT with artists providing full tracks on their
official websites, and there you go.)

I agree on the gift horse the record industry threw away: I have at LEAST 12
cd's that I never would have bought if not for hearing the music from
Napster. what's that, over $200?

My only other note is on the mention of record store listening booths: I
would LOVE that. Most stores do have a display with headphones, but those
usually only have 5-6 cd's, and it's always mainstream over-radio-played
crap I'd never buy or listen to in a million years anyway.   Can't they just
have a giant cd changer in the back and a big bank of headphones (or booths,
so that we can hear the headphones over the music already blasting in the
store) and we can just browse the whole lot?   My music purchases would
probably triple.

Anyway, good site and good luck w/ the boycott. I'll be telling people
about it.

Kate
Boston, MA

Matt,

Good job to you. I agree with your message. I will pass it around.

Thanks for taking the time and effort to push this. I think it is a good idea.

Aight,
Clintok

I feel the time has already past for artists.....If they don't come on-board with P2P as a promotional tool...they will also fall to the same fate as the industry giants. My music is ambient music, some out of print and some not even available in the U.S. of A. I have to thank the Recording Industry Moguls who control distribution.....I get what I want through P2P networks... For example.....just cruising along watch my downloads and uploads, a name popped up in my que....Psicodreamics....I browsed his files and found music of the same screen name..I got a few tracks and I loved it...I went straight to his own website and bought all 3 of his CD's for $24...$8 bucks a CD...I love winning....ARTIST'S take note....this is your future talking to you...and this is how you will do it...in home studios and on-line cruising of Peer to Peer networks....those who don't follow suit....won't be wearing suits.....you can wither away broke, Like the Dinosaurs I don't buy from anymore!

signed......The Flightless Bird

Thank you for your website. I have refused to
purchase cd's other then for my daughter for the last
5 years. Reason being that I couldn't afford to spend
the amount of money they charged for 1 or 2 songs that
I liked. Now I am helping a greater cause in my
opinion. I have felt since I first heard of Napsters
troubles (which I had told my brother long before that
he would have problems if he kept downloading songs at
the speed he was) that the better solution was for the
file trading websites and the RIAA to work together.
I agree with you that file trading is like the radio.
I can't take my internet into the car with me so if I
liked a song I would go look for the cd. But the
problem was that the songs I liked were not found in
most stores. I liked the indie artists and dance
music found in England.

On another note. I don't know if you have digital
cable. I have music channels that I listen to on the
cable. It is great because I again, find songs I like
and can go try to find the...oh wait, I never can find
the cd and with the amount of music I have been
exposed to in my sleep, I can afford it anyways.

Thanks Again.
Amanda Persing

Thank you so much.

Suggestion: would it be possible to make an online version of a petition campaign? If enough of us would sign a declaration saying we promise to not buy certain products until things change, the overwhelming number of signatures would be powerful.

The record industry has grown fat. To them the world revolves around the ?red carpet?, Grammy Awards and who made the gown that J-Lo is wearing. They have totally forgotten about their customers.

They don?t even call us customers. They call us fans!! We are customers and we deserve the respect that any other customer deserves!!

They are so fond of saying that ?The record business is a business?. The people responsible for positioning this ?business? in anticipation of upcoming trends have NOT done their jobs. Internet access to music has totally caught them sleeping (probably with some B-movie model). They want to force their customers to continue using a totally out-dated mode of business.

And why shouldn?t they. They are living in Malibu and skipping all the way to the bank.

They make a CD with 15 songs. I, the customer, like 5 of those songs. Yet, I?m forced to pay an over-priced amount for the CD that contains the 15 songs. I, the customer, want to be able to purchase the 5 songs I like. I, the customer, would like to have internet access, purchase the content that I want. I don?t need them to make a CD.

The technology has changed. The record ?business? has not kept up and now they want to prosecute their customers. I believe we will probably not ever have famous spokespersons that support OUR cause. These people are affiliated with the industry that is at the root if the problem. This has to be a grass-roots effort.

Do NOT buy and tell anyone that will listen. Record sales have fallen 20% and now sales have dipped to 30%. The boycott is working. Do not be deterred by the lack of media coverage. They are all in this together, to some extent. All they want to discuss is when a case is bought against a customer. This suits their purpose because they want to assist the RIAA is scaring us. Do NOT buy?Do NOT buy!!

Timothy Willis

Dear Mr. Brown,

Just thought you'd like to know that I appeared on a radio talk show tonight
on the white paper. It was The Online Show with David Lawrence. He took
the RIAA side and we had a discussion of our opposing views. They post the
audio to their website. Here's a link to it:
http://thedavidlawrenceshow.com/001552.html

Being my first talk show on this topic, it was a "bit" rough. Hopefully,
there will others and my presentation will become more polished with each
one I do.

Sincerely yours,
Scott Jensen

Dear Don't Buy CDs,

Due to your Anti-RIAA stance, I thought you would be interested in a white
paper I've written on how file-sharing will further impact the entertainment
industry. The white paper has been reviewed by experts in the field, three
of whom have provided quotes which can be found on the title page. The
paper itself covers the entire entertainment industry, from movies to music,
from novels to computer games. The white paper can be accessed via these
two links:

http://www.nonesuch.org/p2prevolution.pdf

http://www.miketurco.com/library/p2prev.pdf

Naturally, if you have any questions, feel free to send them as a reply to
this message and I'll do my best to give them well-thought-out answers and
send them back to you as soon as possible. On the other hand, if you'd like
off-the-cuff answers, simply call me at 608-836-0706. If I'm not here,
please leave a number where you can be reached and when would be the best
time to call.

Sincerely yours,
Scott Jensen

Comment about An Open Letter to Artists

I just wanted to comment about your comment about the
"listening booths". In the Central NY area, there are
record stores; Media Play that still have these
"listening booths", albeit now more like head phones
in the isles. So, previewing music, though on the
limited side, can still be done. Just thought I would
throw my 2 cents in.

A passing reader.

File sharing software really benefits the smaller bands and labels. The bands I listen to maybe sell a few thousand CDs a year, yet when I go to see them live the venue is packed. Why? For the love of music. I have a subscription to three music magazines. I read them from cover to cover, and jot down the interesting bands I find (usually 20-30 bands = too many records to buy and take a chance on). Then I download a few songs from their CDs. If I like them, I check out their tour schedule and make sure I go to a show. At the show I buy buttons, a shirt, a CD, or whatever. A CD or song is a persuasive tool to get a fan to a show. And without file sharing, how are people in the 'middle-of-nowhere' US going to get the music. Downloading music gets bands heard and helps to create music scenes. So rather than a band touring to just NYC, Chicago, Cleveland, etc., they can play shows in smaller cities they never knew existed that now have a huge fan base for them. If you care about the bands, then go see them live, buy them a beer, and tell them they rock.

Chris Davidson

CD's are getting cheaper, are they not?

Also, why not set up a donation system - all money you save by not
buying cds should help to find new artists who's music YOU WANT TO BUY.
Surley the least a good song deserves is support?

t./

My Response:

In the United Kingdom, CDs are getting cheaper. Elsewhere, such as in the United States, they are not. The prices are higher than ever.

If you would like to donate to artists whose music you enjoy, there is a website for that called Musiclink.com. As I understand it, any artist may be listed there for free, then fans send them donations.

Sincerely,
Matthew Brown
Webmaster

Dear "Don't Buy CDs", Dear "Don't Buy CDs",

I'd be interested to hear more of the apparently critical letter you received from James Lee Stanley that you refer to on your website (http://www.dontbuycds.org/artists.htm). I've just sent him a snotty email, which he seems rather baffled by. He seems quite forward thinking in his approach to MP3s and music distribution in general, so I am surprised you flag him up on your site as someone against your cause. I'm all for a campaign against stupidity and record company greed, but I'd like to be sure my vitriol is not misdirected in future. Perhaps you need to decide whether you are specifically against the CD-protection systems which are hindering legitimate use of paid-for music, and thus bad for both artist and listener, or whether you are just "anti-everything". The analogy you make between radio and filesharing is quite weak and certainly open to argument / differences of opinion. Ultimately your blurring of the distinction been your laudable "anti-copy protection" / "pro-listener choice" stance with the quite different arguments about filesharing is going to alienate many of those of us who support the former cause but see 'sharing' as a quite different (and less clear cut) issue.

Jonathan Bury, UK

Dear Jonathan:

The actual letter is on the reader comments page, along with my response, which is very similar to the open letter to artists. I get the impression that many artists accept the party line the labels have recited like a mantra, and haven't considered anyone else's position. One thing is for sure. If the industry continues on its current course, they might make file trading go underground, but will anger and alienate millions. Enemies are rarely customers. Besides, making file trading go underground won't make it cease to be, it will just make the practice seem even more cool and rebellious to young people. Artists and the labels need to realize this. Napster was the greatest promotion the industry ever had, and they didn't even have to give it payola. Kazaa, and the rest could be just as much of a boon as Napster if the labels would come to licensing terms with them, or just let them be. As for "copy protected" CDs that won't play in a computer, and sometimes won't play in dedicated CD players. Even the most RIAA loyal artists should see that this is a bad idea. This is a sleight many of us will never forgive or forget.

Sincerely,
Matthew Brown
webmaster

To Whom It May Concern:

I have to be honest in that I have not downloaded very much music from
online networks. Also, I have been one of those stingy ones that doesn't
share. However, now I kind of wish that I would have. The RIAA needs to
pay for their decisions. I wish there was some way that we could get the
message out to all American's to stop buying CD's completely. This would
indeed cripple the industry and show the people that are all trying to
prosecute music lovers that we are the ones who made them rich, and we are
the ones that can make them poor. Law suits will come and go, but in the
end, whether or not the RIAA survives is up to the American public. If the
American public boycotted CD's starting tomorrow, it would cripple the
industry. I agree that most people that download music end up buying the
cd. It is just not the same unless you have the CD--even with MP3 players.
I used to download one song of a band that my friends told me about, and
then after doing that I would buy the CD---what an evil consumer I
am.....the RIAA would hate a person like me, wouldn't they? NO!!! I have
been buying CD's of the songs that I like. At the same time, the RIAA
decides to raise their prices and try and prevent the less affluent group of
Americans from getting their hands on their favorite songs. Unbelievable.
I have decided that I will not buy another CD as long as I live--unless the
RIAA comes around to public voice. The fact that they are trying to get
lists of people from universities and colleges that were distributing music
is just crazy. All they are doing is awakening a sleeping giant of people
who want and demand change. Idiots!!!

Anyway, I liked your website, and I hope that you can keep it up to date so
that I can refer my friends to it to see the latest news on this issue.

Thanks!

Maybe you just have old information or you just stopped updating the website but the recording industry has started making newer copy-protection schemes that will let the cds play on computers but not get copied, one of these is centered around using the Microsoft windows media audio format to "hide the tracks on the cd so you can't copy them but can play it on your computer, using windows media player of course, {SARCASM ALERT} but I'm sure that microsoft won't try to dominate the music industry with this, they'd never do that ("yeah right")

------------------------------------------

One of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that, lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C programs.
-- Robert Firth

They always say to be wary of the quiet ones who don't get mad, but, personally, I'm more worried about that loud pissed-off guy in the middle of the street with the shotgun and the chainsaw

0101001101101001011001110110111001100101011001000010110000001101000010100101011101101001011011000110110001101001011000010110110100100000010010110110111001101001011001110110100001110100

translate here-> binary

My Response

The protection scheme you are referring to is only one of many. If it were the only one out there, we would have less to be angry about, but it is not. The one EMI is using all over Europe, and will roll out in the US if they haven't already, often makes discs unplayable in dedicated CD players, especially brand new audiophile quality units which are the most expensive ones. Kevin Smith from London, England recently wrote to me about those, and you can see his letters on Reader comments. When people complain, EMI tells them their player is the problem, and they will just have to try a different one. People have told me that they are downright abusive on the phone, and in e-mail. Is this how a business should treat customers?

None of these protection schemes will stop a dedicated CD duplicator from copying them, nor do they stop someone from hooking a CD player to the line in port on a computer sound card, so they are not an obstacle to the pirates making counterfeit discs to sell on street corners and at flea markets, but they make using legitimately owned discs a great pain to paying customers.

I am not surprised that Microsoft is in bed with the recording industry. Birds of a feather flock together. I will post your letter on the reader's comments page. Thank you for the information.

Sincerely,
Matthew Brown
webmaster of dontbuycds.org

Dear dontbuycds.org.

In your response to James Lee Stanley, you neglected
to inform him that it's not file sharing that is
robbing the artists of its pay. It's the record
labels themselves. Please see my attachment of how
the "Math" of getting a record deal works. I think
this shows who the "REAL" pirates are. James Lee
Stanley may think the RIAA is going to get them more
money. The reality is, the only one the RIAA is going
to provide money for by suing its customers is the
record labels, not the artists.

Visit boycott-riaa.com and learn more.

Tony Malak
Michigan

WHO ARE THE ?REAL? PIRATES?

attached to Tony Malak's letter

"Despite the whopping success of Apple's iTunes online music store, some popular artists have refused to sell their music in single track format.

Artists claim that the "get only what you want" model undermines their art, in this case, the concept of a full album (order of the songs and the "full picture" all the tracks on the album together create) and are also worried about the fact that selling all the material in single track format might have a negative effect on their album sales."

I remember Courtney Love saying "Today I want to talk about piracy and music. What is piracy? Piracy is the act of stealing an artist's work without any intention of paying for it. I'm not talking about Napster-type software. I'm talking about major label recording contracts."

"This story is about a bidding-war band that gets a huge deal with a 20 percent royalty rate and a million-dollar advance. (No bidding-war band ever got a 20 percent royalty, but whatever.) This is my "funny" math based on some reality and I just want to qualify it by saying I'm positive it's better math than what Edgar Bronfman Jr. [the president and CEO of Seagram, which owns Polygram] would provide.

What happens to that million dollars? They spend half a million to record their album. That leaves the band with $500,000. They pay $100,000 to their manager for 20 percent commission. They pay $25,000 each to their lawyer and business manager. That leaves $350,000 for the four band members to split. After $170,000 in taxes, there's $180,000 left. That comes out to $45,000 per person. That's $45,000 to live on for a year until the record gets released. The record is a big hit and sells a million copies. (How a bidding-war band sells a million copies of its debut record is another rant entirely, but it's based on any basic civics-class knowledge that any of us have about cartels. Put simply, the antitrust laws in this country are basically a joke, protecting us just enough to not have to re-name our park service the Phillip Morris National Park Service.)"

"So, this band releases two singles and makes two videos. The two videos cost a million dollars to make and 50 percent of the video production costs are recouped out of the band's royalties. The band gets $200,000 in tour support, which is 100 percent recoupable. The record company spends $300,000 on independent radio promotion. You have to pay independent promotion to get your song on the radio; independent promotion is a system where the record companies use middlemen so they can pretend not to know that radio stations -- the unified broadcast system -- are getting paid to play their records. All of those independent promotion costs are charged to the band. Since the original million-dollar advance is also recoupable, the band owes $2 million to the record company. If all of the million records are sold at full price with no discounts or record clubs, the band earns $2 million in royalties, since their 20 percent royalty works out to $2 a record. Two million dollars in royalties minus $2 million in recoupable expenses equals ... zero! How much does the record company make? They grossed $11 million. It costs $500,000 to manufacture the CDs and they advanced the band $1 million. Plus there were $1 million in video costs, $300,000 in radio promotion and $200,000 in tour support. The company also paid $750,000 in music publishing royalties.

They spent $2.2 million on marketing. That's mostly retail advertising, but marketing also pays for those huge posters of Marilyn Manson in Times Square and the street scouts who drive around in vans handing out black Korn T-shirts and backwards baseball caps. Not to mention trips to Scores and cash for tips for all and sundry. Add it up and the record company has spent about $4.4 million.

So their profit is $6.6 million; the band may as well be working at a 7-Eleven.

Of course, they had fun. Hearing yourself on the radio, selling records, getting new fans and being on TV is great, but now the band doesn't have enough money to pay the rent and nobody has any credit. Worst of all, after all this, the band owns none of its work ... they can pay the mortgage forever but they'll never own the house. Like I said: Sharecropping. Our media says, "Boo hoo, poor pop stars, they had a nice ride. F*@# them for speaking up"; but I say this dialogue is imperative. And cynical media people, who are more fascinated with celebrity than most celebrities, need to reacquaint themselves with their value systems."

dear dbcds,
I have just read over your page and your objections to the actions of the riaa. while the riaa has never been very supportive of me, I do recognize the reality of intellectual rights. in your statement you talk about the riaa violating your rights, but you don't even acknowledge that the artists who created the art you are enjoying deserve to be compensated. the people who put up the money so that the art could be turned into a product you could enjoy deserve to be compensated. there is also the consideration that every artist who records a song has to do so in a studio of some sort on equipment of some sort that all has to be rented or purchased, so those folks in the chain are being compensated. you have a right to listen to any music you want. you don't have the right to deprive artists and their patrons of a reasonable profit. if you download...pay for it. if you copy cd's then you are taking money out of the pocket of the artist who made the music you are copying. this isn't rocket science. this is personal accountability. you want the ride, then pay the fare.
james lee stanley

Official Website: http://www.jamesleestanley.com
Merchandise Stores: http://www.jamesleestanley.com/mp3/mp3stores.html
James Lee Stanley Electronic Mailing List
MP3 Site: http://www.mp3.com/jamesleestanley

My Response: My Response:

I have been concerned that some artists would misunderstand dontbuycds.org, and my concern was founded. You have misunderstood the message of the website entirely. No one is advocating theft! Music fans do respect artists, but deserve to be treated as customers by the industry, and wooed; not presumed thieves, bullied or threatened. I own over 1000 titles on Cassette, LP, and CD. I used to blow a lot of money on my love of music. Then, the industry started to view my patronage as a debt they were owed, not a privilege they had to earn.

In the 1980s, the radio and MTV were still great ways to discover new artists, and the Columbia House and BMG record clubs seemed like a good deal. In the 90s, they stopped playing music videos on MTV, and radio became nothing but a few overproduced, over commercialized garbage songs over and over. It seemed that music had died. Then came Napster. It was again possible to try a wide variety of music, and occasionally buy something I really liked. It was everything the radio and MTV once were and more! Then they took it away. That I begrudgingly tolerated. While the retail price of CDs continued to skyrocket, but their cost to produce and quality came down, I begrudgingly accepted it. When I got a "copy protected" CD that would not work in my computer that meant war!!

I talked to many people who had similar experiences, and they all encouraged me to go forward, and start www.dontbuycds.org

The point of the site is that the recording industry has behaved outrageously, and patronage is not a debt customers owe them, but a privilege that must be earned. When the user's preferred player, or only player is a computer, a "copy protected" disc that will not play in one is useless. Something useless is also worthless.

Have you considered that many fans who discovered your music, then bought your recordings, and attended your concerts discovered you on file trading networks, or from a friend making them a tape or CD-R? Have you considered that blank tapes and CD-R have a so-called piracy tax charged on them, so the recording industry gets some ill-gotten booty even when people don't use them for music? Since your music is not played on the radio, these methods of promotion are the only ones that you have available. People don't have to pay to listen to the radio, and file trading networks are the new radio. Why shouldn't we try before we buy? Back in the day, record stores had listening booths to let you do just this. If you were interested in music that the radio didn't play, that was a wonderful way to discover new music, and was free. They took that away, too. I could go on forever, but what I would say is already said on the site on one page or another.

Sincerely Matthew Brown

webmaster of dontbuycds.org

P.S. My wife just bought your latest CD

Do you also think that internet sites should make it clear that you are
purchasing a copy controlled CD by means of a warning pop up or in the
description of the disc itself as this is how I buy the majority of my CDs.

Kevin

Giving a warning is the least they could do, but they don't even do that.
Really, they need to stop making copy controlled CDs altogether. I posted two
articles on External Links that that show 1/3 of all CD sales worldwide are
counterfeit. In all countries but Japan and the US, the pirate disk market
is larger than the legitimate market. If the cheap disks kids can get on a
street corner play in a computer, and the expensive ones at legitimate
retailers won't, kids are going to buy from the man on the street corner.
The labels need to realize this.

Matthew Brown

Guys

If you people are so upset about the fact that copy controlled CDs don't
play in your PCs which is what you use to play them on, then how do you
think I feel when the cursed things don't play in my high end CD player?
That's right, I can't even play them on the device that was specifically
made to play CDs!!!!

Technically, they aren't CDs as they fall outside the red book agreement
between Sony and Phillips and as such shouldn't be marketed as CDs. Yes, I
can pay another $80 to have a fix put on my CD player, but WHY THE HELL
SHOULD I??? So if a band releases a CCCD I won't buy it and if there isn't a
vinyl issue of it, then I don't buy the album at all. How to shoot yourself
in the foot, as written by the record industry.

Good luck with the campaign.

Regards

Kevin Smith
London
England

Dear Kevin,

You certainly got taken by the record label, and you shouldn't have to put up
with this kind of nonsense. I am curious, was the disk in question published
by EMI? They have treated customers worse than any other label I am aware
of, and deserve to be boycotted all the way to bankruptcy.

You, and others who got these disks in the U.K. should sue the labels, as
they misrepresented what they were selling. Phillips may be interested in
pursuing them if the Compact Disc Digital Audio logo was used. They have no
sense of humor when it appears on a disc that doesn't meet red book
standards. There is a class action lawsuit over those disks in the U.S. that
the labels will probably lose. A suit in the U.K. might be modeled after it.

I put your letter on the Reader Comments page so that others will be made
aware how bad this problem is getting. Thank you for sending it.

Sincerely,
Matthew Brown
webmaster

If I got my backside in gear, I should write to all the record companies If I got my backside in gear, I should write to all the record companies
asking them what they propose to do about my situation. If they all put ?20
each in the pot then I would happily get my CD player attended to. I should
also forward a copy of their responses to a music magazine like Q to see if
they would take up the cause.

The CDs involved are Sleeping With Ghosts by Placebo which is on Hut
Recordings, part of the Virgin Record Group and Hail to the Thief by
Radiohead, Parlophone, part of EMI. They have been careful not to include
the standard CD logo on it.

Regards

Kevin Smith

I would like to be able to buy a CD with Just 1 song. The song I want, till then I should be able to copy. Who puts 15 to 20 songs on the CD , The Artist or the recording Company?

Lu Grahn

Vancouver

To Matthew Brown-

Hello- I heard your interview with Stirling this eve- I just had to write and let you know that I have been aware of the rip-off for many years- I have been promoting independent artists through media shows up till a couple of years ago-I, with a team of people have been actively putting together an alternative marketing system for unsigned artists that allows them to compensated honestly and far greater than any label deal. the general public doesn't realize that very little if any of the cd sales ends up with the artist- We have developed a marketing system through streaming media, networking, manufacturing and direct marketing that will allow most of the funds to got back to the artists and the on-line affiliates that direct the customers to the artists- I would be happy to converse with you more . I think you may like what we're doing - and could recommend our site to your members-

we're just launched and in the process of making some changes but, everything is working even though this is just the first phase- I'd like to hear you comments - thanks- dk

ps below is a quick overview without any details-- all that is available on our site got to www.mymusicuniverse.com

BFMI/MMU------ CONDENSED SYNOPSIS

Be Free Media International (BFMI) through My Music Universe (MMU) has created a unique business plan that allows an artist to remain an Independent Business Operating Artist (IBOA) and at the same time access to a world market, while relieving much of the burden of the business through high tech promotion, manufacturing and direct on-line distribution.

Our goal is to provide a Win-Win scenario for all parties involved by employing the best ideas in modern marketing and technology.

The artist can now take advantage of limitless compensation possibilities through a co-operative network of other artist members and affiliate on-line stores all directing new customers to MMU, therefore, the artist income will not be solely dependent on their own careers and creative efforts.

MMU allies each individual career with others through a system that has been designed to return more potential income to those providing the music, videos and customers than any other plan we know of.

The following is a condensed point breakdown:

1-BFMI/MMU will always pay royalties to the artist for every sale no matter who initiates it- NOTE: International direct deposit has been set up

2-BFMI/MMU also provides commissions @ 2 levels or tiers

a- from 10-20% to the artist member or affiliate that initiates the sale

b- from 5-10% to any referred artist or affiliate.

NOTE; this can be a permanent commission attached to another referred artist or affiliate that becomes a member. A fee is also rendered to the referring artist for accepted submissions.

3- BFMI/MMU has set up a coded, fully accessible tracking system for each artists and affiliate, which allows for lifetime customers and the creation of a permanent residual income.

4- BFMI/MMU has full E-commerce in place including direct deposit, world banking and collection of funds, on-line shopping cart and international shipping.

5- BFMI/MMU membership is a one time flat fee and provides for unlimited manufacturing of each CD entered for on-line sales.

6- BFMI/MMU provides safe/protected streaming of audio and video media, a bio page, and links to artist websites. NOTE the system does not require an artist to have a website.

7- MMU is a fully optimized website created and designed with ranking technology

BFMI/MMU is actively working on upgrades and various promotional and marketing ideas such as, a subscription data base for DMD (single pay-per-track downloads)---Archived radio for MMU artists features--- media promotions

Hello,

2 things especially bug me about CD's:

1. If I already own a particular record or cassette and then buy the CD
form, I still pay the same price. I have already paid the artist license
with the previous purchase and I should only be charged an upgrade price,
which would be lower than the regular price. I think the money should be
refunded to everyone who has paid for two licenses.

2. If I already own a recording of a particular song then I should be able
to download it without being charged. All I am doing is changing the media
from the record or cassette that I already own to a digital format. As
before, I should not be charged twice for the license.

If your organization is willing to start a class action lawsuit on either of
these issues, you can count on my support.

Best regards,

Tim Doskoch <-:)
Edmonton, Canada

Hi,
Your welcome(sorry it's taken me so long to reply). I couldn't agree with you more. I feel I can get more out of a DVD example:Led Zeppelin-DVD than I can out of a cd. They are priced a little better and give you so much more than a standard "high" priced cd. I haven't bought a cd in sometime now unless it used. I will buy a new only if it's for a friend's or girlfriend's birthday or Chhristmas. That's the only exception I make anymore.
Everything shows up used eventually, I do feel bad about my favorite artists getting nothing out of the deal but I can't afford to just go out and buy every new cd I want.
Also I noticed you had had a question about Flaming Text from one comment you had received. I don't know if anyone cleared this up for you or not but they are nothing more than signatures that can be added to the bottom of emails. See mine below "BEAKER".
I hope this was helpful.
Brian Kelly

Image by FlamingText.com

I think that all the people want to buy Cds and software, but in a right
price. In USA software is cheaper than in many countries (for example,
in Brazil you buy a Microsoft Windoxs XP for $200 while here the home is
83 dollars). But music here is really expensive.

In other hand, the arguments of RIAA in which piracy or copy are the
responsible by the decrease in the money of the big companies is not
realy true. Think about Microsoft windows, probably is one of copied
softwares in the word... but Bill Gates is the one of the richest man in
the world. He didn't go to bankruptcy because of this. As I said before
83 dollars to me seems a right price, not $200. In software we can
think about Linux... don't talk me about Linux. I used this SO during 48
hs (I try!)... but it was impossible to configure, my joystick and my
sound card don't work. Besides, people has the right to choose what want
to use and need to pay for it... the right price.

It's interesting what the RIAA talk about mp3. Second them, mp3 is a
illegal format of music and you can't copy to mp3 neither your own CDs
bought legally. Since there is no official mp3 CDs, someone could explain
me why Sony (one of the majors) has produced mp3 players? They are
supporting the piracy! This is ridiculous. People can sue Sony by
this... "they sell a electronic equipment with some specifications (mp3)
we can't use". I think that RIAA must first sue its member... I want to
see this news in TV "RIAA sue Sony, Philips and Panasonic because of mp3
players"! Another thing is that if people who use Kazaa (80 million)
stop to buy CDs, the decrease on CD sell will not only be 6-7% a year.

Who is the loser? We have the weapon in our hands. If we stop to buy
the expensive CDs from RIAA partners... we will save 20 bucks. We will
win 20 bucks. And RIAA partners? They will close. Yeah... you can think
"there is a lot of people that live from music in this industries". In a
first moment, this people (that really work by music) will be out of the
business. But I don't think that Shakira, Britney or Christina,
Metallica, Eminem, etc... will not sing because this. This people can
have your own employees, decide your own carrier and... the most
important... Really receive the money of their work and their music. I
feel sorry they didn't see this yet!

Brancy13

Hello,

RIAA needs to understand that people want choice and convenience and CDs are neither. From what I understand, most listeners only want to listen to one or two of the songs on a CD and the rest are filler that they would rather skip.

I only own about 20 music CDs because I can?t find anything that I like, I don?t know what I like, it isn?t convenient, and I don?t want to spend hundreds of hours sorting through music to find the random bluegrass, religious, folk, classical, rock, and jazz songs that I happen to enjoy using for background music. I had a couple audiophile friends who introduced me to much of the music that I like, 8 years ago I didn?t listen to anything because I hated everything I heard on the radio and couldn?t afford a $20 book on a topic that I am obsessed about let alone risk $17 on a CD that might be pain to my ears. RIAA might be interested to know that only AFTER I listened to ?pirated? music on MP3s, I found music that I liked and have purchased 16 of the 20 CDs that I own in the last 3 years! Because someone else pirated music, they made over a hundred dollars off of me!

I think that the average consumer is BORED with the traditional music offerings and that MP3 sharing should be encouraged as a form of marketing because it creates EXCITEMENT in new music listeners.

Don?t sue them, encourage them and their friends will become music consumers instead of music haters.

Mike

Hello,

Though I agree that the mainstream recording industry is very corrupt, it isn't an issue of CD prices in my mind. It's an issue of a lack of equity and dishonest business techniques. Executives are paying themselves grossly disproportionate sums in comparison with their employees. They are also taking advantage of their employees through dishonest deal making, claiming that what appears and in fact is dishonest is common practice, and therefore acceptable. Obviously, this is rubbish. But I wholeheartedly disagree that CD prices are too high and that cracking down on file sharers on the Internet is highly objectionable. Transferring copyrighted files through a file sharing network is a felony. There is no excuse for it. As for CD prices, I'm aware that manufacturing a CD costs very little, but producing an album of artwork costs considerably more, and selling albums for five dollars will not make a profit. Bootleggers make a profit because they don't have to pay anyone. When !
the artist, engineers, directors, producers, etc. need to paid, five bucks isn't going to go very far. I must point out that Discipline Global Mobile, an independent record company that strives for equity and to engage in honest and straightforward business, often sells its CD's at a higher price than the corporate companies, and the reason for this is that they pay their artists more. In my opinion, this is a step in the right direction, because recording artists have been taken advantage of for a long, long time. Dontbuycds.org has some very good points, but I really don't think that a boycott of the recording industry is the way to solve things. I think that if artists would refuse to sign contracts that take advantage of them, and if more and more record companies would set a good example by engaging in honest business, it will produce much better results in the long run.

Luke

Hi!

I just read this article:
http://dontbuycds.org/piracy.htm

"Outside of the U.S. there is no DMCA, and crackers in Germany have already broken their copy protection schemes."

I just wanted to tell you that there's a new law in Germany making it illegal to circumvent copy protection. And I think that such laws will be passed in other countries as well.

Regards

Thank you for that information. I will post it on reader comments, and will edit the article, What Is Piracy?

webmaster

I've been reading a lot about the corrupt cd's today and I have to say that I think this practice has been going on longer than most of us think. I purchased cd's back in the 90's that act the same way as some of the newer ones are in cd players and PC's.
I have bought cd's that are not remastered or recently released that have only partially worked or not worked at all in either my cd player or my computer. Examples are Gordon Lightfoot-Gord's Gold (tried 3 different copies in my PC none of them will play all the way through). The Who-Live At Leeds Box Set (2 copies neither one would even track in my cd player. Yes I know this one was remastered). Jimmy Buffett-Don't Stop The Carnival (one track would not play in my PC and the computer portion of the cd would not play either).
I'm glad I stumbled across this site today (and a few others). Keep up the good work.

Sincerely,
Brian Kelly

Hello people at Don't buy CD's. I have read about 'What is piracy?' on your
site. It is well written and everybody can understand it. Thanks to people
like you the greedy music-business-organizations can not anymore easily
cheat and lie to people. What is 'on top charts', 'a hit' is made by
advertising and propaganda. The radio (TV) stations play most time just what
the music business bosses want people to hear. So people go out and buy the
music they hear on radio and TV. This is a big mess because many other
musicians, producers, composers with different music taste will have
troubles go 'on the air'. So they will be mostly ignored by the masses. But
thanks to the P2P technology people do have now own decision what they want
to hear. Now many 'underground' groups/performers get chance to come and see
the light. They do not need anymore big labels a la Sony, EMI and the rest
with shitty contracts. They can record, produce and put it on P2P
independently. THIS is a main reason RIAA got nervous about. RIAA is losing
control and one day they will not exist anymore.

People all over the world keep up the fight!
Marc-Andre L. from Zurich/Switzerland

I agree fully with the ideas behind this boycott. Unfortunately, this cuts out the primary method

If you're like me, and like some of today's artists, but don't want to support the RIAA, there are two options to take that you should know about: used CDs, and saved streams.

As someone else pointed out, used CDs are a legal way to enjoy the music without paying the RIAA a single cent. In addition, used CDs are usually at a much more reasonable price than a new one, and are essentially the CD - liner notes and everything! If you want to show your support financially, you could try to send them money, although I don't know how you would go about doing that. A more accessible idea is to go to their concert or join their fan club.

On the other hand, you can use the legal new medium of streaming. It's like radio, only you have a lot more choices (since you can access streams from all over the world), and potentially CD quality songs. Plus, you can save it to your hard drive as an MP3. What's really great is that if you use WinAmp, the decoders for both MP3 and OGG have built-in mechanisms for saving streamed MP3s. These can be accessed from the plugin preferences menu; you simply choose what folder to save the file to, and it does it. You get exactly the file that you were listening to, and with the diversity of streaming "stations", you can get exposure to new bands while getting the major-label songs you like.

I hope this helps.

Daniel

I agree 100%!!! The day when music stopped being about music and more about money and power was a lamentable one. Support the artists, screw the greedy executives!

Darron Murrell

Hello everybody, great site - keep up the fight!?

The root of the whole problem as I see it is just the inflation?of the?value of the entire industry: Do I believe that Eminem (random example) is talented and works (fairly) hard and deserves to get paid for what he does? Yes, of course. Do I believe that Em's contribution to society (or ANYTHING) is so great that he should be a multi-multi-multi-millionaire? Hell, no! At the root of the music 'stealing' issue is the fact that most of the people downloading and swapping files are people working 40+ hours a week for just above a living wage; for them to see someone become richer than God just for slinging a couple of semi-passable tracks is just too much for us to take. This exaggerated value is in every aspect of the industry, ironically the one aspect that SHOULD be a little more expensive is largely unnoticed: concert ticket prices. In order to become so fantastically wealthy a band (group, artist, posse, whatever) should have to tour CONSTANTLY. If they are able to charge $60 or $100 for a show and people pay, more power to them. If they try to sell tickets at that price and don't fill the venue, well then, there is the market at work. In short, I think that the industry as a whole should be subject to the same drive we all have - if I work harder I will make more money. It's plain and simple from my point of view - value for the dollar will get them much more respect and in the end more money than any amount?of lawsuits.?
?
P.S. It is also obvious that the industry as a whole has no idea what they are fighting against: the file swappers will not be stymied by any technology they use to block access to CD's, file-swapping services, etc. - these guys are good, and they love a good fight (and I love them for it!)?
Once again, keep fighting and keep up the good work, I'm behind you 100%

Thank you,
M. ?Ballance
Web Designer

Just my opinion
Although it's quite evident that you have much research, and your opinion is obviously valid, I find that in your "What is Piracy?" essay, you overlook a few things.
For instance, in your comments made about the prices of CD's, you mention "The main reason is that people who would buy a CD for under five dollars at a flea market would never spend almost twenty dollars for one at the mall." You don't seem to mention the fact that there are other places to buy CDs, outside of the mall. Stores like Best Buy and some local record stores sell CDs, for anything from $5 to $11.?If these stores are not accessible to some people, there are always on line music stores that sell CDs for decent prices.
Another problem mentioned: "Any artist that wouldn't do it [the record labels'] way might never find an audience. Napster changed that." has some overlooked points. These same Internet music stores (which I mentioned before) have ways to introduce people to new music, either of the customers'?own taste in genre, or not. Whenever a CD is looked up on one of these websites, there is a section entitled "Buyers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:" which shows?a few other artists that may interest the potential customer. Speaking from personal experience, I have found this to be a very useful way to find new artists and even genres. Although not all websites have this feature, some have other features in which a random customer shares his or her taste in music, sharing which?artists they like, and in many cases, the new?artists that are worth checking out. There are also many other websites, such as cdbaby.com, which specialize in helping underground bands find audiences. In addition, there is MTV2 (which I know not everybody has access to), and even radio station such as Cincinnati's WOXY, which play many varying artists and genres. They even have an Internet broadcast for those out of the area.
The last problem I had with your piece arose when you began to talk about the copy-proof systems the music industry introduces, and the prices of CDs (again). I would just like to point out that it is the fault of the people downloading music and copying music off of CDs, that the corporations were forced to do such things. With a cut in sales, corporations were forced to take such measures to insure that they stay in business, just as any company, big or small, would do.?
Although I respect your opinion very much I just thought I would share mine with you, pointing out the various things I?found in your?essay that seemed?to?be a little overlooked. Although?I'm aware that?that?kind of essay is meant to be one-sided, I am?just giving another one-sided response.?Thank you.

--Jamie Hale

man you got to be trippin!!! dont buy cds come on what the hell are we suppose to buy then? tapes? well those are going out and i know mp3's suck cause not everyone has those and then theres the radio which hmmm....lets see doesnt always plays what you want to hear so dont buy cds? what the?!?!?!?!?!? man that is just dumb i know im gunna keep on buyin them as long as i live and i dont give a care what anyone thinks but all i know is that this is just stupid i rest my case here bye! man you got to be trippin!!! dont buy cds come on what the hell are we suppose to buy then? tapes? well those are going out and i know mp3's suck cause not everyone has those and then theres the radio which hmmm....lets see doesnt always plays what you want to hear so dont buy cds? what the?!?!?!?!?!? man that is just dumb i know im gunna keep on buyin them as long as i live and i dont give a care what anyone thinks but all i know is that this is just stupid i rest my case here bye!

Image by FlamingText.com

Note from webmaster: This is an actual reader letter from someone named Cindy. The meaning of Image by FlamingText.com is unclear, as no image is attached to the letter. Could Cindy be an RIAA employee?

Has it not struck many that, in parallel with the rolling out of anti-
ripping 'corruption', has been the inexorable rise in the butchering
of the actual sound quality on most commercial CD releases? I'm referring
to the gross limiting/compression on new and 'remastered' releases which
has been widely commented on.

Interestingly, this compression makes the titles in question VERY ameanable
to digital compression for band-width limited streaming with no loss
of "quality". But just try MP3'ing a 'proper' CD, one with real dymamics
and timbre, such as orchestral music, at less than 224 KbS without obvious
artifacting. On the other hand, a typical bastardized CD like the Chilli
Peppers' 'Californication' sounds exactly the same at practically any
bit-rate.

Could it be that this f***ing with the fidelity of the discs is NOT just
the result of pig-ignorant philistine exec's, as generally thought, but
a long-term strategy? Kill off CD as a 'hi-fi' medium, start selling
128KbS-downloads of so-called "CD quality", and at the same time concentrate
on selling the benighted public their (Sony/EMI/Universals' et al) entire
back catalogue AGAIN on SACD/DVD whatever.

The dire sound-quality of most new releases REALLY pisses me off, and
it suddenly dawned on me the other day that, without even thinking about
it, for the past couple of years I've been scouring CD-exchanges for
'old' CD-releases of classic albums in an effort to avoid these bastardized
pieces of crap. Check out, for example, Santana's early albums on releases
from the mid-90's or earlier if you want to know how CD *should* sound.

I wish the 'music industry' all the worst. Assholes.

Keep on keeping on,

ciao,
Rainer.

It is very true that the RIAA doesn't realize we're in a recession. I've been out of work for almost a year now so I haven't had much to spend on anything, especially CDs. In fact, I've only purchased one CD since January and was able to catch it on sale so I didn't have to pay a ridiculous price for it. I only paid $10.07 (after taxes here). But, a few weeks before I bought it, I had downloaded it so now I have a backup in case something bad happens to the original. Of course the RIAA loves copy-protection. It'll force people to buy another copy of a CD should anything happen to the original. It's a money making scam and will one day be seen as such. I've also written to my local television station and asked them to do a story on it. Back before I had a CD-burner, I had the misfortune of one of my favorite CDs getting busted. I was forced to go out and buy a new copy. Now, if I have a favorite CD that's copy protected and it gets busted I'll be forced to buy a new copy. This is completely unfair and I told the news station that. As of now, due to afformentioned unemployment, I am downloading new albums. However, I plan on purchasing them when I get a job and some money. Then, as stated, I'll have backups, which I'll store away in a safe place. Some of the albums I have are older and I've been finding originals at used CD stores. I continue to download other songs, but I still plan on buying those albums as well. I like for my music to be top quality and it's just hard to find top quality music on the P2Ps these days. One thing I will not support, however, is the music industry's blatant censoring, as they've contracted with Wal-Mart to do. The only CDs I buy from there are the ones I know have no need to be censored. Yes, all this sounds like I'm a supporter, but I'm not. I may buy the CDs and that money may be going to the fat cats and not the artists, but I dream of the day when that will not be so. I have several friends who are musicians and even have dreams of my own to be a musician. It is very true that the RIAA doesn't realize we're in a recession. I've been out of work for almost a year now so I haven't had much to spend on anything, especially CDs. In fact, I've only purchased one CD since January and was able to catch it on sale so I didn't have to pay a ridiculous price for it. I only paid $10.07 (after taxes here). But, a few weeks before I bought it, I had downloaded it so now I have a backup in case something bad happens to the original. Of course the RIAA loves copy-protection. It'll force people to buy another copy of a CD should anything happen to the original. It's a money making scam and will one day be seen as such. I've also written to my local television station and asked them to do a story on it. Back before I had a CD-burner, I had the misfortune of one of my favorite CDs getting busted. I was forced to go out and buy a new copy. Now, if I have a favorite CD that's copy protected and it gets busted I'll be forced to buy a new copy. This is completely unfair and I told the news station that. As of now, due to afformentioned unemployment, I am downloading new albums. However, I plan on purchasing them when I get a job and some money. Then, as stated, I'll have backups, which I'll store away in a safe place. Some of the albums I have are older and I've been finding originals at used CD stores. I continue to download other songs, but I still plan on buying those albums as well. I like for my music to be top quality and it's just hard to find top quality music on the P2Ps these days. One thing I will not support, however, is the music industry's blatant censoring, as they've contracted with Wal-Mart to do. The only CDs I buy from there are the ones I know have no need to be censored. Yes, all this sounds like I'm a supporter, but I'm not. I may buy the CDs and that money may be going to the fat cats and not the artists, but I dream of the day when that will not be so. I have several friends who are musicians and even have dreams of my own to be a musician.

I thought you might like to know the Recording Industry's own definition of piracy. Although I do agree that real Piracy and something related to counterfeiting music and movies (the correct term, by the way) are wholly different matters, I am willing to grudgingly accept the phrase "piracy" simply because it's in use and English is a flexible, constantly evolving language. Nonetheless, I don't use it myself, preferring "counterfeit" simply because it's an accurate description.

However, check this out:
from the IFPI, the international organization that represents record companies and their national organizations, (including the US-based RIAA, which is a member). www.ifpi.org

[begin quote]
What is Piracy?
The term of piracy is generally used to describe the deliberate infringement of copyright on a commercial scale. In relation to the music industry it refers to unauthorised copying and, in this context, falls into 3 categories:

Simple piracy - is the unauthorised duplication of an original recording for commercial gain without the consent of the rights owner. The packaging of pirate copies is different from the original. Pirate copies are often compilations, such as the "greatest hits" of a specific artist, or a collection of a specific genre, such as dance tracks.

Counterfeits - are copied and packaged to resemble the original as closely as possible. The original producer's trademarks and logos are reproduced in order to mislead the consumer into believing that they are buying an original product.

Bootlegs - these are the unauthorised recordings of live or broadcast performances. They are duplicated and sold - often at a premium price - without the permission of the artist, composer or record company.
[end quote]

Note that in no case does it describe the ordinary copying of music CDs by individuals for their private use. Also, this (and similar) definitions are found on the recording rights associations of most nations that I have bothered to check.

Sony music execs were recently quoted in Newsweek saying that they were
going to introduce new technology in a few months which would block all
digital copying, even first generation copying. I didn't expect much to
come of it, but I nevertheless wrote them to tell them that I haven't gotten
into downloading music on the net but, despite their objectionably high
prices, I still buy C.D.s. I noted that most discs include only a few
really good tracks, so I excerpt these and anthologize them onto "mix" discs
of my own making. I noted that, if they render this impossible, they will
render their product valueless to me and then I (and no doubt, countless
others) will stop buying C.D.s. Too bad these outfits get so big and deaf
to consumer concerns that they will likely learn nothing from such warnings.
I am a great movie buff, I might add, thrilled with the
technical quality that is possible with DVDs. It strikes me as monstrous
that I am more and more frequently encountering discs where the
copy-guarding has been larded on so heavily that it degrades the quality of
the screen image. They invent potential greatness, then their greed and
paranoia moves them to wreck it! What a shame it is that the lines of
communication to these corporate fat cats are so "blocked" that no one can
effectively get through to them regarding the folly of their ways.

Dave Greene

North Huntingdon, PA

Thank you for creating this site, I was considering starting up a similar site myself. Unfortunately my HTML coding skills are lacking so i gave up hope. Good work.

The thing that angers me most about the music industry is that CD's are sold for $20, they cost less than $1 to make and less than $1 to get them on the shelves and promoted. The record companies make several dollars of each of these cd sales and give the artist-the one with the talent and skill makes only a few cents off each cd sale. Is it fair that the record companies make many times more than the artist simply for recording their music and putting it on a cd?
I saw no mention of this unfairness to artists on your site so i thought i might mention it

thanks again for creating the site and helping the revolution get under way, change will come when the masses come, and a website is a prime way to distribute information.

huboldium

If the music you desire is 50 years old or older, instead of paying the RIAA the money they want, buy a CD on labels such as ASV Living Era, Pearl Pearl Flapper, JSP, Indigo, Proper Records, Definitive, Disky (their Golden Greats 3 CD series) and other such labels in the European Union: Sound Recordings and broadcasts; 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the last remaining author of the work dies, or the work is made available to the public, (by authorised release, performance, broadcast,etc.) A lot of times, the sound quality on these UK public domain CDs is better than the CDs issued by the RIAA members that produced the music in the first place.

Bradley Olson

Hello,

I think this site is a great idea. A helpful addition to this site
might be a simple how-to document on boycotting or registering one's
discontent with RIAA/MPAA/Others.

I've been boycotting the RIAA, MPAA and Disney for years now and I've
always tried to spread the word.

Though, I use to be stricter in my "no purchases that further their
cause" approach. I didn't go to the movies, have cable, buy cds or
dvds, or use to listen to the radio. But then I had to throw out
entirely the notion of ever seeing good movies at home again.

Being a movie and music lover, I figured there should be a less painful
approach, and I've since deemed that a less painful approach would be
donate a portion of my total cd and dvd purchases to organizations that
fight/lobby for consumer rights etc., eg EFF

I have since pledged that I'll donate 10% of my entire cd/dvd purchases
for the year to the EFF. So far the amount is 0 since I still haven't
bought one, but this does allow me to buy a dvd or two for myself and/or
family without making things worst than they are.

Another thing that worked for me, is to simply pick up a musical
instrument. The guitar has provided me more musical satisfaction than
any band or cd has. This might sound over the top, but it really was a
great way for me to continue to explore and enjoy music without playing
into the hands of shady corporate organizations. I still listen to
music, but much less, and now I have a better appreciation for and
understanding of good music then ever before.

Kervin L. Pierre

Dear Sirs,

I'm pretty fascinated by your site. I'm a German citizen and I think that you're absolutely right about your demand of not buying

CD. Something that I don't do for long time.

It is actually not the problem of not supporting artist. I also don't think that any good artist is starving nowadays.

The basic problem is the huge profits that the recording industry got used to. When I say the recording industry I mean

the companies and the stock-holders, not the artists themselves. The money that such artists receive is

relatively nothing compared to what this greedy industry is receiving. It is a big cheat to call buying CDs an act

of honesty. No recording company is honest. These cartels are the milking simple citizens with over-priced CDs in the name

of holy art.

If these companies would decide to drop prices to possible levels, I would understand their claim somehow. But in the

name of freedom of capitalism, they do misuse the name of artist, in order to steal every possible penny of any living human-being.

The desire for more money has basically started about 20 years ago. The living standard of many countries has increased,

people started affording more luxury devices among which music LPs and later on CDs and DVDs.

Revenues of recording companies reached unbelievable levels and investors were highly satisfied.

Charging about $30 for a single CD in average (in Germany) is more than outrageous. It is criminal. If they would charge only

tenth of that amount, artists would still be able to earn the same and recording companies would also receive the double amount

of what their artists receive. But recording industry is determined to receive 20 times of that profit in the name of supporting art.

There is no logical reason for supporting their greed. I would support any initiative that sets a limit to these greedy companies.

Should you be willing to have activity in Germany, let me know.

Respectfully

Joe N. - Germany

"It costs less than a dollar to press a disc. When CDs were new, they cost twice as much as LPs and cassettes. The industry claimed that the cost to produce this new format was high, and promised that as their costs came down, so would retail prices. This price drop never occurred. In stores where vinyl records and cassettes are still sold, they are priced lower than CDs, even though they cost more to manufacture. The industry has colluded to fix prices, and they continue to skyrocket. In some markets, CDs cost twenty dollars. A movie on DVD sells for less than its soundtrack on CD. This is unacceptable."

-----------

First of all, hi.

I would like to comment on the bold text, it says that in some markets CDs cost 20 dollars.
actually in some markets that number is higher, just look at Iceland for example a new CD there costs 2500kr ( $29,5 )
and new DVDs 3.299kr - 3.999kr ( $38,8 - $47 )
And those are _Common_ prices, I didnt just pick the most expensive one I found.

Hope you'll update your site with this new info

Please write back to confirm that you've received this message.

Urls to back this up:

DVD's http://www.skifan.is:80/skifan/dept_DVD.asp
CD's http://www.skifan.is:80/skifan/dept_isl.asp

?var Arnfj?r? Bjarmason

Dear sir/lady,

I totally agree with your point of view on the music market today,
and I wrote my thoughts down lately on a related issue (also covering the music
business). You might want to add it to your links page:

http://huizen.dds.nl/~alwinh/CONTROL_versus_FREEDOM.html

or, shorter:

http://huizen.dds.nl/~alwinh/FREEDOM

Maybe I'll write some more in the future, if I do, the 1st URL shall point to
the article, and the 2nd to an index/latest/news whatever.
P.S. I'm not boycotting CD's (yet), but I buy few normally, and the state of the
music business right now doesn't encourage me to buy more (and leaves an
increasingly bad taste).
For any software/music purchases I'm totally staying away from any
copy-protection scheme whatsoever. If I can't copy it for my own use, well then,
too bad, then they've lost the sale to me, and I'll buy something else. Their
loss, not mine.

Keep up the good work!

Don't think you are free, KNOW you are.

I agree with your message at dontbuycds.org and I will be more than happy to link to your site. One thing I would suggest is offering people alternative solutions to obtaining music....ie trading cd's with others or purchasing used cd...etc. I agree with your message at dontbuycds.org and I will be more than happy to link to your site. One thing I would suggest is offering people alternative solutions to obtaining music....ie trading cd's with others or purchasing used cd...etc.

Just a thought,

Stefan Puffer

Hi, I was wondering why my new cd would not play in cd spot on the
computer. That is not fair. I am always on the computer and I
love throwing in my CDs to listen to them.

WE need to do some thing to stop this crap! feel free to send me a
form to sign. I will add my name to it.

thank you

sherry

I purchased a Sound Choice Karaoke disk.? It was in a CD case and sealed in
clear wrap.? When I broke the seal and opened the case, on the CD itself it
says "MediaCloq CDG's will not play in a computer".? Since I use my computer
as my Karaoke machine with a legal program, WinCDG Pro, I am upset that
there is no statement or warning on the outside case.? In other words you
have to unwrap the CD case, break the seal, and open it to find out that it
will not play on a computer.? Once it is opened it can't be returned.? I
really think this is a deceptive practice by Sound Choice and their email
addy is www.soundchoice.com.? I sent them an email expressing my concerns
about not having any warning on the outside case and they didn't even have
the decency to reply.

Lisa D.

We forwarded her letter to Sound Choice, with our own comments:

Dear Sound Choice:

I continue to get letters like this from my readers.You had previously told customers you were going to stop using mediacloq.
Not only are you calling your customers thieves, but also lying to us. Here is my response to Lisa D:

They did the same to me, and I got stuck with Headbangers Hits Volume X. I
use my computer, and WinCDG to rehearse before I go to shows. A computer is
my player, the disc won't play, and they don't care. That was the final
insult that led me to start www.dontbuycds.org. I also joined the class
action lawsuit, Dickey v. Universal Music Group et al. Follow this link to
join. http://www.milberg.com/mil-cgi-bin/mil?templ=featured/audiocds.html It
might also be worthwhile to complain to the federal trade commission at
www.ftc.gov. These deceptive practices must not be left unchallenged, or more publishers
will do it, too. A warning label is the least they could do, but I consider
that inadequate. No one ever ripped tracks from karaoke CDs and offered them
on Napster or Morpheus. To top it off, these discs aren't copy proof! They
will copy in a dedicated disc duplicator. The insult of presuming their
customers are thieves is something I will never forgive or forget, and I
hope you won't either. I posted your comments, and will try to put pressure
on Sound Choice on your behalf. In the meantime, you should never purchase
their products again, and tell everyone who will listen at Karaoke shows
why. Encourage them to join the boycott of Sound Choice Karaoke. If enough
people stop buying their discs, they will have to either stop using
mediacloq, or go out of business.

Certainly, you must realize that karaoke is a niche market. How many us do
you think you can alienate, and still stay in business. There are many other
publishers, such as Music Maestro, and Top Tunes that do not use schemes
like mediacloq. Some of them even sell downloads for computer based karaoke
machines such as the CAVS JB 99 digital jukebox. http://www.cavs-usa.com/jb-99.htm
I strongly suggest that you should at least offer a prompt refund to anyone
who has a mediacloq disk, and if you want to make amends to all the paying
customers you have insulted, recall the mediacloq discs, and replace them
with unprotected ones.
Sincerely
Matthew G. Brown
webmaster of dontbuycds.org

They replied:

There are several "misconceptions" in the letter that you received. First
of all, nearly all of the discs that we put the MediaCloq on also have it
identified on the back of the jewel case. However, some of the first discs
produced did not, and that may have been what your writer purchased.
Secondly, the reader does not say if they even made any attempt to contact
Sound Choice or their dealer about this issue. Early on, in the MediaCloq
production process, when we realized that this process caused difficulty on
some computer-chip based machines, we began an exchange program on these
discs. Some of the more popular titles had already been reproduced without
MediaCloq, and we were able to provide the same disc to the customer. In
other cases we were able to exchange the MediaCloq disc for a different disc
for the customer.

That information has been available through all of our dealers, through our
customer service reps, and has been posted on many of the internet boards,
like Jolt. We have tried to make it as easy a process as possible for those
who had a problem. Unfortunately, it is impossible for us to track down all
the disc throughout the entire distribution channel. While most of the
MediaCloq discs are now probably out of circulation, I am sure that there a
few out there that continue to pop up. For those customers, all that they
have to do is call our customer service department and the issue will be
resolved.

Finally, as an aside, I just want you to know that you are wrong about the
piracy issue. It is an extreme issue in the Karaoke business. You are
right about is being a niche market - and as such it has a very small
customer base within which to recover the costs of producing songs. The
number of "illegal" KJs grows continually, and it is putting the legal
operators out of business. We don't presume that customers are thieves, but
we did try an protect the business from the few bad apples. When the system
that we employed impacted legitimate customers, we quickly discontinued it,
and instituted the exchange policy for those impacted.

We are continuing our efforts to make a product that can be played on any
player, but not easily copied. We have the right, under all laws, to
protect our copyrighted material, as long as that does not interfere with
the customer's ability to use the material for the intended purpose - which
is playing the songs, not reproducing them. At that point in time, when we
are able to institute the new protection system, there should be no
complaints from any legitimate customer. The only reason anyone would have
to complain would be because they want to make copies.

It has become an unfortunate fact in our society today that everyone thinks
that music should be free. It should be perfectly legal to make copies. I
would love to be able to go to Sears and buy one tire for my car, and make
three copies. That would certainly reduce my expenses for transportation.
Of course, the tire companies might not like that, and probably would
eventually have to jack up the price on that one tire, or go out of
business. I guess that everyone understands that it costs to make tires,
but assumes that it is free to produce a song and then make a cdg, and then
distribute it. Free copies, free downloads, etc., are not a right of the
consumer.

It is interesting that the only person writing to your comments
page who showed flagrant inconsideration by typing with only
capital letters was a RIAA employee. When asked to stop, that
employee began another posting with: "PLEASE EXCUSE ME FOR
TYPING IN ALL CAPS BUT..."; and then continued to
disrespectfully regard everyone's wishes yet again.

One could easily get the impression that morality and basic
human decency are not their fortes. When I spotted the first
posting by that person, I immediately knew the writer was either
an idiot or an employee of the RIAA before I read any of the
actual text. Of course, history has taught us very well that
being an employee of the RIAA and being an idiot are far from
mutually exclusive characteristics. Allow me to rephrase that
for the taxed comprehensions of our RIAA readers: They goes
together like peas and carrots -- like momma always told you.

Yep... They're some fine people, who have the consciences of
alley cats in heat. Before you RIAA folks claim that I am
"pirating" quotes from the Forrest Gump movie you had better
research the humor and editorial provisions concerning the fair
use of copyrights - and you might also need to research the term
slander while you are doing that. I'm sure you will not need to
search far to find yourself a lawyer... in the next cubicle
perhaps?

- --
Thomas Corriher

I'm with you, but words aren't going to do any better. We have to take actions. Either they or us, and as a computer programmer, I have put life target to break these cd protections and throw it in their face.

Spiros Kasimis

Using "piracy " to describe the copying of music

Hello,

You page states that the origins are unclear. I believe if you research
Columbia Records and Bob Dylan's "basement tapes" you'll find the
correlation. Columbia started the one first "anti-piracy" campaigns using
the word "bootlegging" (strong word when images of illicit booze comes to
mind, but not as strong as blood and murder on the high seas".

here's a link you may find helpful.
http://web.archive.org/web/20020208035736/http://helios.unive.it/~icare/magazine/naghavi.htm

"free as in Liberty, not beer"
good luck
Mike Gardner

(note from webmaster: The original link is down, but the article is still available via archive.org's wayback machine.)

Music is not a product. I believe that the recording industry has stripped
music down to a very artificial and soulless entity. Promoting money-making,
plasticized music has done very little for society; possibly even much harm.
I doubt that this situation would even exist if music were created in the
proper scope. If an artist isn't motivated to pick up their guitar, sit at
their piano or hum a bar without glowing dollar signs in their eyeballs, their
compact disc is probably not worth the plastic. Is music a mere product? If
somebody had something to express that was really worth listening to, money
would be the last thing on their mind. It's unfortunate that it has come to be
the horrendous beast it has become.
On another note, I would like to commend you on your website. I have found it
very informative and inspiring.
~Andrew Doiron

Great Article

I do web design and multimedia for a living. If there
is going to be a block on computers making them not
able to play CDs. Where else are we going to get the
music from for our projects? One of the medias we need
in multimedia and a crucial one is sound. How are we
going to over come this? Think about the games and the
gamers.

kane

The music industry isn't the only one struggling with these issues. You'll find that the book industry is having similar growing pains.

In light of that, you might want to add this link to your web page: http://www.baen.com/library/

Eric Flint's comments about stealing copyrighted material work just as well for the music industry as the printing industry. My favorite quote from that page is:

"One of the things about the online debate over e-piracy that particularly galled me was the blithe assumption by some of my opponents that the human race is a pack of slavering would-be thieves held (barely) in check by the fear of prison sentences."

Indeed -- given fair pricing, I for one would rather buy than steal. I think that, given a chance, most people would.

If you like what he has to say, please post the link prominently on your site.

Thanks for your time, and for the web site.

What about used CDs?

-Ian McCowan

Buy used CDs whenever you want to. Hilary Rosen won't get any of your money.
After the first sale, copyrighted materials like music, books, videos etc.
are the property of the original owner to use, or if they see fit, resell.
Since the labels got paid on the first sale, and are not entitled to any
more royalties.

The RIAA and major labels have been lobbying for royalty payments on used CD
sales, and have even enlisted artists such as Garth Brooks, but that would
violate the first sale principle, which has always been part of US copyright
law. Hopefully their lobbyists cannot trash the first sale principle, as
they have with fair use.

Sincerely,
Matthew Brown
webmaster of dontbuycds.org

From: Karukas Music

To: comments@dontbuycds.org

Sent: Monday, November 25, 2002 5:56 PM

Subject: comments on rant

I am a recording artist / producer songwriter and came across your site/rant. You have a few worthwhile points, except there is a MUCH bigger, picture to consider.

Most important are the rights of the creators in all this. Please respect that these creative/musical/songwriting talents are some of the most precious, and valuable Human Qualities, and that they are universally admired for their power to unite all cultures and alleviate some of the World Stress we are experiencing. Here are my comments:
Stop selling music at such an obscene mark up.
It costs less than a dollar to press and package a disc. Few can afford to spend up to $20.00 every time they want to buy music, and even those who can afford it rightfully refuse to. When CDs were new, they cost twice as much as LPs and cassettes. The industry claimed that the cost to produce this new format was high, and promised that as their costs came down, so would retail prices. This price drop never occurred. The industry has colluded to fix prices, and they continue to skyrocket.
True. One important point on this issue is that there is, and always has been , an unbalanced PROFIT margin for labels vs. the artists/creators (people like me) , however this is not a "consumer/market factor". Mostly it is due to the initial wide-eyed desperation of up and coming artists giving up rights and signing contracts with "old school", unfair accounting formulas. Given that, production costs, artist development, marketing $$ and distributors cuts have all gone UP!!
Artist (creators) royalties always need to be paid or there will be less incentive to create new original works.

Case in point: commercial jingle / TV / film background music is a competitive, but thriving, business because the payment structures are solid and lucrative. Many former instrumental composer/artists have long since given up trying to be "Recording Artists" (an artist as a part of the Original music (CD) market) . This is SAD.
Stop using protection schemes.
Using them denies us our fair use and personal property rights, and accuses us all of being thieves.
refined technology to match the exploding piracy rates is essential and it must evolve. "Standardized" PC/CD/DVD Rom hardware was not even able to guarantee compatibility with all Red Book (Music) CD's until as recently as 2 years ago , so those "rights" only apply to the hardware they were initially intended for. There will always be problems with merging technologies ( PC / personal Stereo/Audio) and their compatibility. example: TIVO and Replay TV still can't work correctly with Digital Cable.
Furthermore, if , in the "old days", you used to buy an LP and copy a "custom mix" cassette for your personal use in your car, why can't you use your own home setup today (however advanced- analog or digital) to similarly make a personal CDR (from music that you paid for) that you can be sure will work and fit your tastes. Many websites offer custom playlist CD's with demo sound clips that can be purchased knowing that all the creators are getting paid..
Leave file traders alone.
Trading files is today's version of calling in a request to a radio station, or borrowing a friends' CD.
Except that "sharing" unlimited copies distributed - without the Copyright Owner's permission - over a network is "Copyright Infringement" - plain and simple.
"requesting to a radio station" is a one time listening opportunity much like sound clips on a retail site.
"borrowing a friends' CD" (and copying it) seems OK except that you just got an artist's product without paying the artist, producer, or songwriter OR label. These creators mostly earn their living on royalties after the sale. (only after small, if any, advance payments have been fully recouped) .

My 2 cents,

Gregg Karukas
www.karukas.com

If you wanna support the people who DO NOT contribute to the RIAA
hegemony you want to fill as much of your musical diet as possible
from here: http://www.iuma.com/

IUMA has an incredible selection. I keep links in iTunes to the
artists' MP3 playlists I find and like. I've actually bought a few
discs from artists on there. My favorite so far was from their
Progressive Rock file: My Fine Friend Phil.

An excellent sidebar to IUMA is http://www.earbuzz.com/. 100% of
the profit goes to the artists they sell.

-Matt McCabe

"Character is Destiny." -Greek Proverb

howdy,

I'm in a band (The Overprivileged, http://www.theoverprivileged.com) and let me say we agree with you 100%. our dinky little band can produce professional CDs with jewel cases, full-color covers, multi-paged booklets, two-color printing on the CD, full lyric sheet, liner notes, etc, all individually wrapped -- all for about a dollar per unit. and that is for only a thousand units! I'm sure the Industry can do far better, when they do the same product in runs of hundreds of thousands. yet, CDs with far less content than ours sit on shelves with price tags of $17.99 or more.

it's outrageous.

but it's not the real problem -- it's just a symptom. the real problem is that pure greed is not only unchecked, it is in fact encouraged in the music world. it starts with the executives, but bands get pulled in and are just as culpable once the industry executive puts those dollar signs in their eyes. my band is part of a movement to nullify all that. you see, we hold works of art to be sacred. great music deserves to be heard. at a fundamental level, we hold the artwork itself more sacred than the artist. it's the music that's important, not the musician. if the musician would cage his music, then we will act as liberators, setting it free to be heard by as many people as possible. it's a radical point of view, sure, but we wouldn't be fighting for it if those in charge of the major labels hadn't abused their power so horrendously.

our band copyrights none of our music. and although we plan to keep playing as long as we are still strong enough to play, we hope to never make a living from it. we hope we will always be able to think of this thing we do as recreation. what we want to do. never what we HAVE to do.

as an aside, many bands will argue that your boycott hurts them because although they are not themselves evil, they must align themselves with evil major labels because they have no alternative. this is simply not true. my band is 100% independent and we do alright for ourselves. we could certainly turn a profit if we chose to sell our merchandise for more than at cost. we book ourselves on about 80 shows a year. we toured the midwest and Canada last summer and we're touring Europe for four weeks in the fall. we sell lots of T-shirts and CDs. and we do it all ourselves. ahh, I've gone way off topic here, but my point is just to let people know that it CAN be done without the help of the "evil empire", so don't let people use that excuse on you.

keep fighting the good fight.

Dan
http://www.theoverprivileged.com
the overprivileged

I WORK IN THE RECORDING INDUSTRY & I COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND YOUR FRUSTRATIONS REGARDING THE HIGH COSTS OF CD'S. BUT I ALSO HOPE THAT ALL CD'S WILL COME OUT WITHOUT THE CAPABILITY TO BURN THEM. WITHOUT THIS, THERE WILL BE NO RECORDING INDUSTRY AND NO FUTURE CD'S TO BURN. IF PEOPLE CAN'T MAKE A LIVING RECORDING MUSIC....THERE WILL NOT BE AS MUCH AVAILABLE TO US. YES I AGREE THAT CD'S COST TOO MUCH & IF THE LARGER LABELS WOULD SPEND LESS ON ADVERTISING AND MARKETING THEY WOULD NOT COST SO MUCH. ONLY 1 - 2 IN 10 RECORDING ARTISTS MAKE ENOUGH TO PAY FOR THE OTHER 8-9 THAT WERE FAILURES & LOST MONEY. INDIE LABELS ARE ABLE TO MAKE MORE $ ON LESS SALES BECAUSE THEY SPEND MUCH LESS $ ON PROMOTING THE ARTIST. I LOVE THE CAPABILITY TO BE ABLE TO DOWNLOAD ANY SONG AT ANY TIME I WANT TO. HOWEVER THERE HAS TO BE SOME KIND OF SOLUTION TO WHERE WE CAN HAVE THAT CAPABILITY AND STILL KEEP THE ARTISTS AND RECORD COMPANIES IN BUSINESS. IF YOU HAVE ANY KIND OF POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS FOR THIS....I AM ALL EARS & I WILL DO ALL THAT I CAN TO WORK TOWARD IT.

SINCERELY,
(Name Withheld)

Our response

Dear (Name Withheld):

I used to be one of your industry's best customers. In my college days, 1987-1991, I was a member of Columbia House and BMG music service. I even stayed in Columbia House many years later. They had better selection than BMG, and offered LPs longer. I own hundreds of LPs CDs and cassettes, and spent thousands of dollars on music. That all ended when your industry accused me of being a thief by making discs that won't play in a computer, presuming I would offer them on Napster if I could play them on a PC. If I wanted to do that, I could just as easily hook an ordinary CD player up the "line in" jack on my computer sound card. Never once did I rip a CD and offer it on Napster. Not once! In the 1980s, the computer software industry tried to use copy protection. All they made were enemies. They cost themselves money by calling their paying customers thieves, thus alienating them. The existence of copy protection! gave thousands a reason to become hackers, and copy protection was quickly circumvented.

Home taping never killed the recording industry, and neither will CDR. Piracy is a paper tiger. Using the term piracy, which properly means robbery, rape and murder on the high seas to describe unauthorized copying has always been sensationalism. Your industry has fought every technical innovation ever invented, and tried to suppress it, only for it to turn out to be a source of revenue. When the player piano was invented, the recording industry tried to ban the production of player piano reels for fear they would kill phonograph record sales. When radio first started to play music, your industry tried to ban it, claiming no one would buy records if they could just listen to the radio. Radio turned out to be an invaluable source of promotion. Your industry then created "payola."

Napster was a source of revenue for your industry, not a threat. Every day, music fans discovered new artists, and the ability to try before you buy made people with disposable income more willing to buy CDs. People who did not buy because music was free on Napster were never going to buy anyway. Your industry would have never gotten their money. I think record company types feared losing their ability to tell artists, "I made you a star, and I can take it away." File trading has made it possible for unknowns to became famous artists without selling the rights to their creations, or their souls, so that recording leeches can have Jaguars, vacations homes, and cocaine.

What do we want from your industry? Our demands are listed in the article, What has us so upset? Through following these guidelines, you will appease the enemies you have made, and soon we will forget. Also, you need to realize that in this recession, people have much less disposable income to spend on entertainment. Many are struggling just to get food, clothing and shelter. Also, teens have other forms of entertainment available. Video games provide more bang for the buck than a CD that will never be played again once the current fad song's popularity fades. Movies are a big thing, especially when a DVD of a movie costs less than a CD of its soundtrack.

Bon Jovi's ploy of offering fans membership in an exclusive club if they buy a CD will probably be a rousing success. It offers something more than downloads or burned copies can provide.

Another thing your industry could do better, is to stop pretending that children, especially teen and preteen girls, are your only market. Older and male music fans would buy more if more of what we like was offered.

BY THE WAY. YOU SHOULD NEVER TYPE IN ALL CAPS. IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE YELLING, AND DECREASES THE CHANCE THAT YOUR COMMENTS WILL BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. You will catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

Sincerely,

Matthew Brown

webmaster of dontbuycds.org

Their response

MATTHEW,

PLEASE EXCUSE ME FOR TYPING IN ALL CAPS BUT I TYPE MUCH FASTER WHEN I CAN AVOID CHANGING FROM CAPS TO LOWERCASE...NOT YELLING.

I AGREE WITH MANY OF YOUR POINTS. I AM NOT SAYING THAT THE INDUSTRY MAY NOT BE FIGHTING THIS IN VAIN. YES THE INDUSTRY FOUGHT RADIO BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT NO ONE WOULD BY RECORDS ANYMORE. YES THE MOVIE INDUSTRY FOUGHT THE ABILITY TO HOME RECORD B/C THEY THOUGHT IT WOULD HURT SALES. 15 YEARS FROM NOW IT WILL BE SOMETHING TOTALLY DIFFERENT THAT THEY ARE AFRAID OF.

THE ONLY THING THE INDUSTRY IS TRYING TO PREVENT IS THE MASSIVE AMOUNT OF PIRACY THAT IS GOING ON AT THIS TIME. I BELIEVE THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU AND MYSELF WHO DO NOT BURN DISKS AND WHO HAVE USED THE INTERNET AND COMPUTERS AS A TOOL TO FURTHER OUR LOVE OF MUSIC. HOWEVER, THERE ARE MANY MORE PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO ARE NOT LIKE US. GO TO A COLLEGE CAMPUS AND ASK AROUND HOW MANY PEOPLE BUY CDS ANYMORE. MOST OF MY FRIENDS AT SCHOOL WON'T BUY CDS WHEN THEY CAN BURN THEM FOR FREE. AND IF ONE OF THEIR FRIENDS DOES BUY A CD THEY WILL BURN COPIES FOR MOST OF THEIR FRIENDS. THIS IS NOT JUST A RANDOM THING ANYMORE. IT IS NOT FAIR TO THE ARTISTS AND SONGWRITERS WHO CAN NO LONGER WORK IN THE BUSINESS BECAUSE THERE IS NO MECHANICAL ROYALTY $ COMING IN.

I RESPECT YOU FOR TAKING A STAND FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN, BUT IF YOU WILL TAKE YOUR ENERGY AND DEVOTE IT TO TRYING TO FIND A BETTER SOLUTION, YOUR TIME WILL BE BETTER SPENT. I HAVE TRIED TO THINK OF AN ALTERNATIVE UNSUCCESSFULLY.

CHECK OUT THE PIRACY STATISTICS AT WWW.IFPI.ORG

I DO NOT WISH TO WORK AGAINST THE WORK THAT YOU ARE DOING IF THAT IS WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN. I AM SURE IF YOU HAVE VERY MANY PEOPLE WHO LOOK AT YOUR SITE, THERE IS SOMEONE WHO HAS A POSSIBLE IDEA FOR ALTERNATIVES. PLEASE SHARE ANY IDEAS THAT ANYONE HAS FOR ANOTHER WAY. I WOULD LOVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO TRY AND PUSH FOR A BETTER WAY. I LIKE TO LISTEN TO CDS IN MY COMPUTER ALSO.

THANKS,

(Name Withheld)
PS. YOU ARE WELCOME TO POST MY THOUGHTS BUT I DO NOT WISH TO HAVE MY NAME ATTACHED...PLEASE DO NOT LIST MY NAME.

The technologies bred from file sharing will continue to demonstrate that the old business model of the Record labels is becoming obsolete.

What will happen when the musicians discover that they don?t need a huge record label to market and distribute their music? They will put the RIAA out of work. People know that they can burn their own CDs for less than $1, so paying $18 for a CD produced by a record label with only 3 good songs on it seems pointless. People want better quality music, and because they can sample the music using online file sharing software before shelling out the money to a record store, they are deciding that it isn?t worth it to pay for the CD. Artists have responded in some cases by striving to improve all of the tracks on a CD before publishing it. The net has shown us that the traditional methods of producing and distributing music are becoming less useful, and those who hold stock in these antique methods are frantically trying to hold onto their cash cows.
There is an overwhelming feeling among music enthusiasts that when they buy a CD, their money isn?t going to the people who truly deserve it. They feel that the monetary support the artists deserve is ending up in the bank accounts of the Record label chairmen.

Ryan

Let Them Fall

The RIAA and the labels controls much of the music out there.? And as long as they are still in business, they will keep controlling it.? So let them make their legislations and their laws.? Let them deny fair use to the masses.? Let people become pirates.? Let the internet be a haven for free music.? They can't control the internet, no matter how hard they try.? And they can't arrest all of us.? Let them spend their money trying to protect the works that they have legally stolen from the artists who created them, and keep the works from the masses who want them.? Let the music die...the RIAA will die with it.?

Fred Wilson

This might look good on your site. ;)

I ripped "more music from the fast and the furious" with this method.

-Cookie Monster

Hi,

I find it strange that our leaders could be so close minded as to not notice
that we have a technological revolution like that of the Guttenberg Bible.
A much like the bible fell out of the possessive hands of the church and made
its way into everyone's house, music distribution will change. Why protect
the sandal maker when the wheel is invented?

Let the record companies die the death they deserve ;)

I would also like to suggest this ...

http://streamripper.sourceforge.net
Just play your favorite winamp style radio station and rip away ...

Andres

Thanks for your site and your efforts. I support it 100%. Do you know if the CD's with the copy protection have this fact disclosed to the consumer at the time of purchase? I can imagine buying something that will not even play in an older CD player. Will the music stores take it back? Just a thought on the horrors ahead.

I have already written a dozen letters to congress and can only hope they get read and that our views prevail

No more CD purchases for me until things change.

Regards

Bill
Miami Fl

PS if you wish to post my letter feel free its not copy protected :-)

Elian Gedeon http://www.eliangedeon.com is NOT affiliated with a record
label. In fact, she turned down a label contract at the age of 16.

We are happy to sell CDs with the assurance that not one penny (or 1/100
Euro) will go to anybody connected with RIAA...

A.Lizard

That the cd's that are copy-protected are cd's that no one would buy
anyhow? the only people listening to Celine Dion are a bunch of middle-aged
yuppies with a less than banal collection of music. so it stands to reason
that the cd's used in this copy-protection scheme aren't anything you'd want
to buy anyhow. I mean, Jennifer Lopez? who made her a musician? how does
she go from being a "fly girl" dancer on an early 90's satire show to a
bigshot actress / musician? anyhow, I still agree with you 100%. the riaa
is nothing more than a greedy corporation with deep pockets and tunnel
vision. they adapt very poorly to change, and, like the mpaa, have tried
their best to quash any perceived "threats" to their monopoly. it makes me
sick the way things are being run. fortunately for myself, most, if not all
of the music I listen to isn't major label garbage. so I haven't had to
contend with any lame attempts by the major labels to deprive me of my
rights as a consumer and music lover. micro$oft, anyone?

Nate Bennett

It was announced the other day that if you blacken the first bad track
with a felt pen, the damn disks will play.

Not that I don't agree with your boycott, but mostly because of the
price issue.

Activism is the only way to keep America from becoming a totally
depressing blood sucking Hellhole.

Sincerely
Doug Srock

Just wanted to thank dontbuycds.org for the info. I found it very interesting. These are fascinating times. The music industry is going to have to face the fact that peer-to-peer sharing has been here since the days of the tape recorder and is now new and improved. They are going to have to find a way to coexist.

Thanks again,
ZAKIA

I enjoyed your site, and I'm glad it's there. I support the boycotting of copy protected CD's whole heartedly, but I must point out a difference in definitions in the terms "bootleg" and "piracy".

Pirate CD's, or "counterfeits" are cheap knock-offs of existing albums. They are copies of legitimate discs that are mass produced and sold for peanuts at flea markets and such. However, a "bootleg" is usually a CD or record that contains unreleased studio material, or a live concert recording not available legitimately. Pirate discs offer nothing in the way of new material, they are merely reproductions of legitimate product. Bootlegs offer more in the way of collectable material, as they contain studio out-takes and live concert performances that can not be obtained elsewhere. Bootlegs can be considered collectable, whereas pirate CD's are junk. There is also a thriving underground industry which sells pirated copies of bootlegs! Most CD bootlegs that contain unreleased/live material are manufactured overseas and imported into the country. These so-called "silver discs" (because they have a silver playing surface like a legit CD unlike the green surface of a CD-R) and change hands for around 25 bucks for a single disc, higher for multiple disc sets. These are purchased by folks over here and then are copied onto CD-R, often duplicating the same packaging as the silver disc boot for around $15.00 for a single disc, 25 for a double. This is one of the most thriving industries in all of underground CD making. Often times, too, there are people who have collected live concert or unreleased material on tape, transfer it to CD-R, and sell CD-R copies of their CD-R! They make their own packaging and such to go along with it. Many CD-R's like this exist only in CD-R format, and were never "silver discs".

I just thought I would attempt to clarify some of the terminology that's being thrown around in this debate. Keep up the good work!

Kip Brown

Hi, saw your website, thought I would throw some thoughts your way. In my opinion, we should be boycotting the company behind the music, not just CD purchases.
2 shining examples include Sony and AOL/Time Warner.

Sony makes all kinds of stuff including computers, receivers, speakers,
TVs, etc. Plenty of good competition from other companies out there for
all of that stuff.

While I normally wouldn't propose a boycott of the AOL service, they are
blood brothers with Time Warner now. Lots of ISP competition out there.

Lots of used CD stores out there and when you can't find what you want,
eBay works wonders.

No need for us to make painful decisions, just modify our buying habits a
little differently.

Just some thoughts.

Tom