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	khym_chanur 2006-12-25 01:44 am UTC (link)
	Russian website Allofmp3.com is being sued by the RIAA ... for $1.65 trillion dollars. boggle Isn that, like, greater than then entire GNP of Russia? (Reply to this)(Thread)

	gina 2006-12-25 01:51 am UTC (link)
	Yep. boggles with (Reply to this)(Parent)

harrylovesron
2006-12-25 03:03 am UTC (link)

Yup. I doubt they're honestly expecting Russia to pony it up, mind, but sweet Jesus. $150,000 per song seems to be the RIAA's favorite number. As a mouse pointed out in the clairvoyantwank post I made about this, it's done as a scare tactic- it makes the offenders want to settle out-of-court (shut down their service, and pay the RIAA some form of compensation) rather than try and fight the charge and possibly end up going into severe debt. (Even though the RIAA has, I believe, in the past had their asses handed to them because they can't prove they or their artists actually incurred such severe losses from music pirating.)

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khym_chanur
2006-12-25 03:15 am UTC (link)

I thought that the $150,000 was mainly punitive in nature, rather than economic, but I guess punitive damages are statutory, and there aren't any statutes out there (yet) saying you can go that high. I would think that in this case they'd just say something like "We get more in royalties than they sold the songs for, so ~~all their base are belong to us~~ we should get all their assets".

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	verthandi 2006-12-25 02:03 am UTC (link)
	RIAA, you dicks. The internet is not America. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	harrylovesron 2006-12-25 03:06 am UTC (link)
	Icon love! That was one of my favorite lines from American Gods. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	verthandi 2006-12-25 03:10 am UTC (link)
	It's one of my favorites too. Feel free to steal, but no need to credit since neither the picture nor the quote is mine. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	nevadafighter 2006-12-25 02:36 am UTC (link)
	Boy, talk about trying to kill ants with a blowtorch. Not to mention that the RIAA could sue the entire world and it wouldn't stop people from sharing music. They're delusional fools. (Reply to this)

	seppuku 2006-12-25 02:45 am UTC (link)
	In ex-Soviet Russia, music industry plays you! (Reply to this)

	shinga 2006-12-25 02:48 am UTC (link)
	Oh, RIAA... sigh My dad used AllofMP3.com a lot. And he's really big on the "rar, don't pirate music" thing. But he heard about this and even he's bitching about how annoying the RIAA is. ~~By the way, your icon is totally rocking out to my pirated music.~~ (Reply to this)(Thread)

	harrylovesron 2006-12-25 02:53 am UTC (link)
	By the way, your icon is totally rocking out to my pirated music. I have him going to "Bohemian Rhapsody" right now, in honor of Wayne's World, which I got on video many Christmases ago. The icon was made by prantives on Livejournal; it's freely gackable. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	blackjackrocket 2006-12-25 07:26 am UTC (link)
	He's headbanging to "Almost Unreal" by Roxette. Which is funny, because that song was in the live-action Mario movie. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	southerngaelic 2006-12-25 02:44 pm UTC (link)
	He's actually banging in time to "Fairytale of New York." (Reply to this)(Parent)

oxydosic
2006-12-25 03:05 am UTC (link)

$1.65 trillion dollars

This is making me think of Austin Powers 2, in that scene where Dr. Evil tries to extort $1 billion from the 1960's president and they laugh their asses off at him because that kind of money doesn't exist then. I can just picture the RIAA with its pinky to the corner of its mouth and allofmp3.com's owners laughing because they're trying to sue them for an amount of money that DOESN'T EXIST IN ALL OF RUSSIA.

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	amxjm 2006-12-25 06:04 am UTC (link)
	This is making me think of Austin Powers 2, Oh, good, I'm not the only one. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	april_hurst 2006-12-25 03:58 pm UTC (link)
	There should be some kind of international law that says you're not allowed to sue for more money than is actually in the country of the entity you're suing. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	benighted 2006-12-25 06:56 am UTC (link)
	The RIAA is conducting the most counter-productive movement against ~~piracy~~ ANYTHING I've ever seen. I download more shit every time they're so much as alluded to. ~~-goes to download more shit-~~ (Reply to this)

	ashenmote 2006-12-25 07:53 am UTC (link)
	But why this restraint? Wouldn't suing for All The Money There Is In The World leave them in a better negotiating position? (Reply to this)(Thread)

	khym_chanur 2006-12-25 09:47 am UTC (link)
	Psssh, you're thinking too small. They should sue for All The Money In The Universe, Times Infinity, Squared. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	southerngaelic 2006-12-25 12:55 pm UTC (link)
	.....$1.65 TRILLION?! Oo Stupid RIAA! Internet =/= America! continues to download, so nyaa (Reply to this)

	napalmnacey 2006-12-25 02:34 pm UTC (link)
	These icons say it all. (Just cause I'm stuck on a free account and therefore cannot use the appropriate icons I have in my LJ account). (Reply to this)(Thread)

	dark_puck 2006-12-25 06:15 pm UTC (link)
	Can I gank the Lazytown one? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	napalmnacey 2006-12-26 04:05 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, it's not mine. My LJ username is logansrogue and it says who's it is in the icon info. :) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	nifflet 2006-12-25 10:45 pm UTC (link)
	I want to know who stood up as all the uppity-ups at RIAA were playing darts during happy hour and said "Hey guys! Great idea: let's sue a Russian website for damage to American artists!" Because really, only copious amounts of alcohol would make this proposal seem like a sensible, well-thought-out, USEFUL thing to do. Alcohol and speed. (Reply to this)

	kahrohseh 2006-12-26 03:27 am UTC (link)
	http://www.dontdownloadthissong.com/ (Reply to this)

	isntitironic 2006-12-26 03:44 am UTC (link)
	This wank reminded me that I'd been meaning to look for some Early November songs... (Reply to this)

	Thank you, RIAA! lindentreeisle 2006-12-26 04:10 pm UTC (link)
	Let me tell you, I have downloaded a shitload of copyrighted material in my time, and sometimes I feel slightly guilty. But every time the RIAA does something so completely buttfuckingly retarded that it reminds me the world would be better off if they went bankrupt, I feel much better about myself. Thank you, RIAA! (Reply to this)(Thread)

Re: Thank you, RIAA!

harrylovesron
2006-12-26 08:40 pm UTC (link)

I totally agree. It also helps to know how much mainstream labels screw over their artists in terms of royalties (or lack thereof).

If you want some guilt-free music purchases (and the chance to find some awesome new stuff), check out magnatune.com. It's nothing mainstream, mind; but they have a lot of obscure/unknown artists in a variety of genres. You can stream whole albums for free, and if you like what you hear, you pay what you feel the CD is worth (starting at $5 and going up). The artist gets a 50% cut, no questions asked.

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	Re: Thank you, RIAA! lillyv 2006-12-27 05:15 pm UTC (link)
	I totally agree. It also helps to know how much mainstream labels screw over their artists in terms of royalties (or lack thereof). Big. Fat. Word. (Reply to this)(Parent)

dropdeadred
2006-12-31 10:14 pm UTC (link)

The rep the RIAA has is well deserved, but the RIAA is not the music business. Pirating tunes because they are asshats does nothing to them and plenty to the producers of the music you like.

I was leary of posting this at all, because every time there is music piracy discussion there is wank, with the defenders of the biz being portrayed as robbing assholes who all stick it to the artist and never pay royalties and so on and so forth. I understand that when money is an issue, strong arguments can be invented for why the cheapest way is right, but in the end, there has to be something due to the people and companies who make the music, or there won't be any.

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