RIAA & LL COOL J vs. Public Enemy - Rappers discuss filesharing

[Jome]

Rappers debate downloading


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rapper LL Cool J joined entertainment executives Tuesday in defending the music industry's lawsuits against hundreds of Internet users who illegally distribute music online.

"My question is, if a contractor builds a building, should people be allowed to move into the building for free?" the rapper, dressed in a black suit with an earring glistening in his right lobe, asked senators. "That's how I feel if I record a song or make a movie, and it zooms around the world for free."

Another rapper, Chuck D, founder of Public Enemy, testified at the Senate Governmental Affairs subcommittee hearing that people ought to be able to distribute the songs they want to hear on peer-to-peer Internet services, known as P2P.

"P2P to me means power to the people," said Chuck D. "I trust the consumer more than I trust the people at the helm of these (record) companies."

"LL's a staunch American," Chuck D added in a brief interview. "He's my man and all, man, but when you solely have an American state of mind, you're increasingly becoming a smaller part of the world."

The music industry's trade group, the Recording Industry Association of America, has filed 261 lawsuits against people it accuses of illegally distributing music online. The RIAA blames lagging CD sales on the downloading of music.

The subcommittee chairman, Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman, called the hearing to look into whether the recording industry's tactics were too heavy-handed.

"As a former prosecutor, I am troubled by a strategy that uses the law to threaten people into submission," said Coleman, a former roadie for the '60s rock group Ten Years After. Coleman referred to the rappers as "Mr. Cool J" and "Mr. D."

The RIAA's chairman and CEO, Mitch Bainwol, announced Tuesday that the group will send notification letters to encourage settlements before it files lawsuits. On Monday, the RIAA said it had settled 52 of the 261 lawsuits.

In testimony before the senators, Bainwol defended the lawsuits.

"The decision to move forward with legal action was a last resort," he said. "The market is just falling apart when you're competing against free."

This was the last thing we had in our quiver."

Bainwol said the lawsuits could be avoided if peer-to-peer networks filtered copyrighted material from their sites.

"File sharing networks like Kazaa deliberately induce people to break the law," Bainwol said.

Copyright © 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.

[Trauma-san]

I agree with LL, it's taking money straight out of his pocket anyway you want to look at it.  I've never bought all the arguments for file sharing, anyway you look at it, the way an artist makes money is buy selling copies of their music, and here's copies of their music for free.  There is no arguing against that.  You can say it promotes albums, promotes album sales, all that, but the 30% decline in album sales over the past 3 years says otherwise.  

On the other hand, there's absolutely no way to stop it from happening.  Music, as long as it can be heard, which it can be by definition, will always be able to be recorded for free.  

[The Watcher]

if an artist wants to put his music on the internet, it shouldnt be outlawed

[Kaidy]

Although I'm much against filesharing (mainly album-sharing is what really irks me) and it obviously is hurting the artists, isn't it pretty cool to watch these megarich label moguls squirm like this?

I mean shit, hopefully they'll start to drop prices even more and be less money-oriented when releasing music and give more new talent a chance. The industry has become too monotonous and filesharing is the disease that's been created.

So basically I'm sitting on the fence right now.

[Don Breezio]

but the 30% decline in album sales over the past 3 years says otherwise.  

but theres no way to prove that filesharing is the reason for that...im sure it has had its hand in it but a lot of people (like myself) stopped buying cds because 90% of them are pure bullshit...and a lot of people (again like myself) will download cds just to see if its good enough to buy...i've done that many times...if they want people to buy cds and not download them they need to do a few things:

1) there needs to be a site where you can listen to the albums (THE FULL ALBUMS) before you buy them so your not buying it for one good song and getting a bunch of gay shit on the rest of the cd.

2) drop prices...im not saying drop them dramatically but when target can sell bubba sparxxx - deliverance for 6.99 and sam goody is selling it for 19.99 something is wrong...i know that is the stores fault and not the record industry but i dont give a fuck who's fault it is...they need to drop prices.

3) quit playing shit out before the album even drops...nowadays an artist will release a song and by the time the album drops your sick of hearing it. i would say thats probably atleast 5% of that 30% sales drop.

[Trauma-san]

Although I'm much against filesharing (mainly album-sharing is what really irks me) and it obviously is hurting the artists, isn't it pretty cool to watch these megarich label moguls squirm like this?

I mean shit, hopefully they'll start to drop prices even more and be less money-oriented when releasing music and give more new talent a chance. The industry has become too monotonous and filesharing is the disease that's been created.

So basically I'm sitting on the fence right now.

Yeah, i'm in no way taking the labels side on this, they've been screwing artists and fans for decades now.  They realize there is nothing they can do about this.  NOTHING.  There's absolutely no way they can police this, because somebody will just invent some other way to share files.  Bootlegging is horrible right now, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if album sales for rap artists are selling twice as many albums if you count the bootlegs, anybody with a computer, or that has a flea market near them can attest to that.  There ain't a thing they can do about it, either, and they know it, so they're squirming all over the place.

For years, they had the artists fucked, LOL there wasn't anything they could do about it, they had them in contracts.  Now, there's nothing they can do about this, and it's killing them, they hate it.  

The only solution I see, is that albums are going to have to get down to around 6.99 or so.  Really, that's not too big of a stretch, In the 70's and 80's, albums were 1.00, 1.99 or so, and CD's are easier and cheaper for them to make then LP's.  If they get the price on Cd's down low enough, people won't be able to make any profit on bootlegs, and the quality differences will make people want to buy the CD's.  

Another thing: Artists are going to have to get off their ass.  I guess Michael Jackson was the one who started waiting 4 years between album releases.  Now everybody does that... The beatles released at LEAST 2 albums a year, and as many as 4 a year in the early part of their career.  Even their complicated studio albums only had a year between release.  4 years is rediculous.  Artists need to be more prolific, and they'll earn more money, with less record sales of each album.  Country artists still do this, most Country artists release an album each year, even though they don't sell as many as the other types of music, they still make the same money.  

[Don Breezio]

There's absolutely no way they can police this, because somebody will just invent some other way to share files.

FTP's....i dont think they have anyway to police that...while its kind of a pain in the ass to find ftp info and all that its the best way to do it without getting caught...same with mirc...you dont have to register mirc or anything to use it...so its not like they have your name. since your IP constantly changes they cant get you that way...i would say those 2 things are pretty much going to be the next big things as far as downloading goes.

[Trauma-san]

^ They already are, that's what I'm saying, there's no way they can fight it.