is anyone else concerned about the RIAA's recent activity?

DeinReich · Post by **DeinReich** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 10:09 am

Really, though, I think that the music companies, if they had any sence whatsoever, they would realize that they were getting free advertising, too. I know that our form of media easily exposes people to other genres and bands, in turn provoking the person to buy that artist's music. You're probably right, though in saying that they dont care as much about the anime part as the music part. Personally, though, i believe that things will be done to stop P2P networking before they decide to shut down this site, or others like this one, because right now that is a bigger problem in the RIAA's eyes. That process alone will take years, so we are in the clear for a while.

DeinReich · Post by **DeinReich** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 10:11 am

One question, however. If we moved the servers outside of America, then the RIAA would have no say in shutting them down, right (granted the process will take a while)? Just making sure I'm on the same page here.

khyron · Post by **khyron** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 10:13 am

SOAD2k8 wrote:One question, however. If we moved the servers outside of America, then the RIAA would have no say in shutting them down, right (granted the process will take a while)? Just making sure I'm on the same page here.

IANAL, but if the DNS and hosting were managed offshore, by people offshore, then yes the RIAA would have a hard time pressuring a shutdown. Of course the offshore ISP would still be able to shut down the site if they felt like it, so that's a consideration.

khyron · Post by **khyron** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 10:15 am

SOAD2k8 wrote:Personally, though, i believe that things will be done to stop P2P networking before they decide to shut down this site, or others like this one, because right now that is a bigger problem in the RIAA's eyes. That process alone will take years, so we are in the clear for a while.

I would have agreed with your yesterday, but do you seriously think the RIAA recognizes any difference between AMV and machinima? They're both fan music videos. I would be very surprised if they even labelled them differently on a spreadsheet of "stuff to shut down this week" or something.

DeinReich · Post by **DeinReich** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 10:16 am

khyron wrote:
SOAD2k8 wrote:One question, however. If we moved the servers outside of America, then the RIAA would have no say in shutting them down, right (granted the process will take a while)? Just making sure I'm on the same page here.
IANAL, but if the DNS and hosting were managed offshore, by people offshore, then yes the RIAA would have a hard time pressuring a shutdown. Of course the offshore ISP would still be able to shut down the site if they felt like it, so that's a consideration.

Perhaps, but I think its safe to say if we moved them to, lets say, Canada, that the laws regarding the same issues would not be as strict and Communistic (not sure if thats even a word) as the RIAA's

khyron · Post by **khyron** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 10:19 am

SOAD2k8 wrote:
khyron wrote:
SOAD2k8 wrote:One question, however. If we moved the servers outside of America, then the RIAA would have no say in shutting them down, right (granted the process will take a while)? Just making sure I'm on the same page here.
IANAL, but if the DNS and hosting were managed offshore, by people offshore, then yes the RIAA would have a hard time pressuring a shutdown. Of course the offshore ISP would still be able to shut down the site if they felt like it, so that's a consideration.
Perhaps, but I think its safe to say if we moved them to, lets say, Canada, that the laws regarding the same issues would not be as strict and Communistic (not sure if thats even a word) as the RIAA's

A nice thought, but that's not even remotely true. Canada has their own body which functions very similarly and has shown over the past few years to follow very closely the behavior patterns of the RIAA here in the U.S. right down to pressuring amendment to their copyright law similar to our DMCA. Canada is no friendlier to this sort of thing.

aoi_neko · Post by **aoi_neko** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 11:02 am

I'm with khyron. Yesterday, I would have said the RIAA had more logical targets. Going after rpgfilms, though, makes it clear that there isn't a great deal of logical judgement in use there. One minimum-wage-slave flags the site, a paralegal plugs the information into a form letter, and that's all she wrote. So, I fear it's only a matter of time.

Legally, I think it could be argued either way. But, even assuming that we were legally in the right and that it all falls under "fair use," one's legal rights make precious little difference. a-m-v.org doesn't really have the resources to fight it out for years, the eventual court decision as to "fair use" or no *isn't* guaranteed, and the damages (thanks to "statuatory damages") could be astronomical even if the *actual* damages were zero.

Time to start thinking about a fallback plan....

khyron · Post by **khyron** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 11:08 am

aoi_neko wrote:Legally, I think it could be argued either way. But, even assuming that we were legally in the right and that it all falls under "fair use," one's legal rights make precious little difference. a-m-v.org doesn't really have the resources to fight it out for years, the eventual court decision as to "fair use" or no *isn't* guaranteed, and the damages (thanks to "statuatory damages") could be astronomical even if the *actual* damages were zero.

Time to start thinking about a fallback plan....

This is why I suggest someone from "the org" get in touch with these folks:

http://www.eff.org/

They know a great deal more than I or prolly most folks here do about fighting these sorts of things, and it couldn't hurt to have some sort of plan in place as to what to do should the unfortunate occur.

downwithpants · Post by **downwithpants** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 12:03 pm

dammit, i had a video on rpgfilms...

anyways, a-m-v.org may be slightly less likely to be noticed by the RIAA than rpgfilms.net, if only because the org requires membership to download from the local server, whereas rpgfilms.net only had one of those "type the password in the image to prevent downloadbots/directlinking" barriers. along these lines, the org could make a checkbox during membership signup that says, "by clicking on this checkbox, you promise on your mother's grave that you won't file suit against us..."

but if the org goes down, i'll head to demonseal

and

SOAD2k8 wrote:Perhaps, but I think its safe to say if we moved them to, lets say, Canada, that the laws regarding the same issues would not be as strict and Communistic (not sure if thats even a word) as the RIAA's

you mean capitalist? communist would be one of the last words i'd use to describe the riaa.

Org Profile · Post by **Otohiko** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 12:23 pm

downwithpants wrote: you mean capitalist? communist would be one of the last words i'd use to describe the riaa.

I think he meant 'totalitarian'.

***

Am I concerned about the RIAA? Not really. Can they get to the org? Probably. Not now, I don't think.

I'd be first to pull any of my AMV's down if the music artist whose source I used requested me to do so, though.

Have we had this discussion before? Yes. But I think it's a threat most of us should be pretty used to living with by now. It's not like it's anything new, honestly.