Hillary Rosen, the CEO of the RIAA (Records Industry Association of America) wants ISP’s and telecommunication companies to pay a fee for giving customers access to music swapping software.

This way the RIAA wants to recoup all lost sales and money because of music piracy. Next to that Hillary mentioned on the Midem music conference that more CD’s should be protected against piracy and licensing restrictions and download services by subscription should also be taken care about; She urged this to the major record labels like BMG, Sony music, Warner music, EMI and Universal.

More information can be found in these articles:
at News.com.
at Yahoo news.

What does this mean ?

This means the RIAA, a private company is already enforcing taxes on empty CD’s, MD’s, DAT’s and tapes. They want another “Internet tax” even on the heads of people that do not even touch any bit of music or P2P software on the Internet. Next to this they want a tax on memory cards (which get mostly used in cameras but also MP3 players), MP3 players and MP3 software.

Taxes by the corporations ?
Taxes are food for the government and not for the corporations. This is another point-of-evidence the corporations are taking over the world instead of the government.

You are a criminal ?
The last few years the RIAA, MPAA and other organisations are considering everybody to be a criminal. Even if you only use CDR’s or MD’s for your own productions or if you don’t even use these for music but only for data: you need to pay the extra amount of money that goes to the RIAA and not to the artists. This is to fill up the pockets of the executives of these cartels (or “Industry Associations” if you want to call it like that).

Because you have a PC, CD-WRITER and CD-ROM drive you are a criminal; you need to pay these extra fees (taxes) because you are automatically a music pirate according their analogy.

If I understand correctly you can be called a criminal by having:

• several knives (because you can kill people with them)
• a firearm (because you can shoot people with it)
• a car (because you can drive over people or property with it)
• a camera (because you could make illegal porn with it)
• a videorecorder (because you can record shows/movies with it)…

Where is the world going to ? These are taxes because of crimes a minority of people commit by sharing music illegaly!

Similarities ?

1. This way Microsoft should be also able to enforce taxes to the people because people pirate software.
2. Pirate cd’s get transported, the RIAA should put up road taxes because they loose revenue because CD’s get transported over the road, train, boats, …

What could really help ?
Currently a CD could cost up to 25 EUROS in Belgium.

Let’s make a quick calculation per CD …

1 EURO (box, inlay, cover)
2 EUROS (cd + pressing + marketing)
2 EUROS (goes to artist)

---

5 EUROS (in total)

The rest of the 20 Euros goes to the RIAA or whatever amount the cartel (or “Industry Organisation”) defines.

If CD’s would be having a price tag of let’s say 12 EUROS more people will buy CD’s because they are cheaper. 50% of the CD’s is crap on the market anyway and you need to pay up to 25 EUROS for that piece of plastic. Sometimes there is only one or two numbers that are good on a CD and yet .. 25 EUROS !

Where goes the rest of the money to?
It goes straight to the pockets of these associations. Why? To enforce taxes, pay their lawyers, for their executives, …

Worth to mention: the money does not always arrive at the artist!

What can I do ?
Currently I have the feeling corporations are going to rule the world. They are imposing taxes on everything they can. The money of these taxes goes straight to these associations. Protections are being added not to protect the customer but to protect their pockets; against the customers.

CD’s getting useless …
The last 10 CD’s I have bought there are 3 CD’s useless in my car cd player, cannot play 4 of them in my computer CD-rom drive and 2 CD’s continuesly give problems in my (older) professional DENON players.

This is a problem for me, as DJ. I needed to get all these tracks from the Internet to burn to CD (from MP3) and get all the records; ADDITIONALLY next to buying the CD; to be able to use the music I have given money for !!!

I have lost 50 EUROS because I cannot play them decently in a old DENON cd player. I have lost 100 EUROS (in total) because I cannot play them in my laptop/PC CD player which is the only cd player in this room and my office !

Where does this end?

The RIAA and the MPAA (Motion Pictures Association of America or best said Hollywood) is also enforcing lots of restrains to the current PC manufacturers/owners to enforce DRM (Digital Right Management) so the PC gets theoretically their property instead of your property.

Next to that CD protections get added so you cannot play them on your PC/LAPTOP CDROM drive. Some of these protections do not allow these CD’s to be played in older CD drives like CAR CD drives because these use the same construction as a CDROM drive. The professional Denon 2500 series (worth about 2000 EUROS) cannot play some of these cd’s because the tracks skip …

If you buy a MP3 player in Canada you need to pay the MP3 player + you need to pay an extra for the internal harddrive. 21$ per gig; If you buy a Ipod MP3 player with 20 gigs you will pay 440$ on top of the price of the unit !!!

DVD writable disks you need to pay 2.27$ more per disk, what will you pay if any high resolution disk with four times more storage comes out? 9$ ???

Indeed .. where does it end?

I know MP3’s, am I a criminal ?
I buy my CD’s legally. I buy my VINYL legally. Why? Because I play it in public and I have the best quality. When downloading MP3’s the quality is mostly too bad to use in a discotheque.

I download MP3’s because I need to pre-listen. If I need to buy every CD I would now be bankrupt and be living on the streets. Thanks to MP3’s I can first listen to certain songs and if I like these I start to search around for a CD compilation or VINYL records. This way I minimize my expenses and get a maximum of quality music I can play.

Is this illegal? *NO* because I pay for the music by buying the CD’s and VINYL. Do I use these MP3’s ? *NO* because they are mostly crap anyway to use/handle decently; next to this VINYL is a lot easier to handle than mp3’s or their burned equivalent (with distortion or bad recordings).

I am not a criminal by prelistening my tracks!

DVD’s and CD’s …
You can get a full DVD with movie, commentary, special features and extras for about 20 EUROS.

You can get a soundtrack of a movie for 25 EUROS without any extras.

Where is the f*ck*ng difference? You pay 5 EUROS *MORE* for a piece of plastic that is worth LESS! The prices of CD’s are outragious higher than of a DVD while a DVD costs more to make!

Endnote …
I am worried to grow up in a world where citizens do not run the government anymore but corporations have all ropes in their hands … corporations run the government and the people.

I am worried as a citizen, I am worried about my government,

I am worried about my voice and rights because if I look to the USA ..

the rights of their citizens are almost all taken away …
Why ? For the sake of terrorism (the newest buzzword), piracy (the second newest buzzword) and extortion …

I hope more people will understand their rights are subconsiously taken away and I hope more people will fight for their rights and their privacy …

What will you do if Microsoft, the RIAA, MPIAA and other major corporations run YOUR house, property and laws?

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