"Matt Griffin" <deedlydee@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:3F63F6CC.677265DC@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> bwalker wrote:
>
> > A 12 year old girl is least likely to be aware of the law. She's still
a
> > children (sic) for christ's sake, you don't prosecute her like she was
an
> > adult.
> >
>
> When I was twelve, I was quite well aware of what stealing was and that
> theives go to jail. 12 year olds aren't *that* innocent. The issue
here,
as
> I see it, is that you think it isn't wrong to steal music, and you're
hiding
> behind the "poor, innocent little girl" as a means to your own end.
From
> what I've heard of the sort of fines that the RIAA is planning to levy
> against file sharers, that little "children" got off extremely light.
I'm
> hearing there's gonna be penalties in the tens of thousands of dollars
*per
> song* in some cases. If you've been ripping music files and sharing
them
out
> on the web, I'd be a lot less concerned about what they were doing to
some
> little girl and a lot more concerned that they might be coming after you
> next. News I hear is that they're definitely going after more people,
the
> original 261 are just the first wave of indictments.
>
> Whether you agree with their politics or not, You've got to respect that
> they're frigging serious. We're talking about a fight for survival
here --
> record industry earnings are down, down, down over the last three years,
as
> high -- speed internet is spreading like wildfire and sharing larger
files
> gets easier and easier. These are large multinational cor****ations
employing
> very smart people who want to keep their high-paying jobs. Are you
ready
to
> go the distance against these guys for the right to download Justin
> Timberlake's music against his will (probably what the 12 year old was
> sharing out)? Frankly, that's a battle I don't feel like I could commit
much
> energy to even if I agreed with you. And as a n independant recording
> artist, I really, really don't agree with you.
>
That's quite a great exposé about file sharing you gave me there, it's
quite
sad that wasn't my point at all. In fact, I haven't said anything in my
2-lines post that could be close of giving my opinion on the subject so I
don't see the reason of this post. Maybe your "battles" would take as much
energy from you if you didn't imagine soldiers everywhere.
Whether you like it or not, the principle that file-sharing is wrong
isn't
widely known. When was the time Napster was formally declared illegal, 2
years ago? This is a very recent phenomenon and not everyone knows what at
stakes. Yes, we all know stealing is wrong but we don't all know that
file-swapping is stealing. Yes, the argument that copying from Kazaa is
the
same thing that taping a song from radio is flawed, but not everyone can
make the distinction. Read every post on this forum. You know most of them
are probably older than twelve so imagine what a twelve year old would
think. Unless the RIAA intends to sue everybody who "file-swap" (which
they
already said they wouldn't do), they could at least have the decency to
sue
grown people, not kids who barely have the age to go to high school. No, I
don't think the kid got off easy and I don't think your info of "tens of
thousands per song" has any credibility (Come on, you download 1 LP and
you
have to pay $100,000? Even the RIAA isn't that much of thief).
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