CENTURY MEDIA Sues More Than 7,000 People Over Illegal ICED EARTH, LACUNA COIL Downlo

[egan.]

Very true. Still, making an example of someone is far from just getting even. Even though I'm very familiar with the way the average price of a CD is shared amongst all the individuals associated in the process, I won't even try going into the math side of things. However, there have been several rather exact calculations of the true losses and compensations in the cases that have gained publicity, and shit, those numbers just won't add up.

Totally, but I think that is a symptom of criminal vs. civil situation. When I was a kid I got into some trouble for vandalism and had to do community service and pay the actual cost of repair. If however the owner's only recourse was to sue me I might have had to replace the building.
I'm not 100 percent on this but I believe the rules dictating what record companies can sue for are based on VHS movie piracy which was of course a for profit business which has a greater degree of malice if nothing else but also implies there was money involved in the first place. The damage may be the same but the other factors are quite different.

 

[schwinginbatman]

Just to put it out there, here's the statement from Iced Earth:

ICED EARTH’s Jon Schaffer comments on Century Media’s file sharing lawsuit:

“It has come to my attention that Century Media is suing fans over illegal downloads of (among others) our latest album ‘Dystopia’. I felt it was important to clarify that we had no knowledge of this motion and were, sadly, not asked permission.

We all know the music industry is changing. We have been adapting to this m
odel by embracing legal streaming services such as Spotify and by bringing our music to places we have never played before by touring our proverbial asses off.

As much as we respect that the labels are having a harder time selling music, we feel this is a misguided effort and want to make sure our fans know we would have not given our consent would we have been asked.”

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Jon Schaffer's stock keeps going up in my eyes. Fuck I'm gonna go buy an Iced Earth Tee now.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

The EFF says it's all about settlement but it's impossible to know unless you had a candid conversation with the label heads. FWIW, it probably has to be a large per case settlement to pay for all of the lawyers. If CM went after 7000 people for $30 it wouldn't even cover the phone bill from the lawyers.

Then it becomes a lose-lose situation for both the offenders and the label. To the label who may not make anything in profit off of it, the whole ordeal is more a pissing contest by the label to show that it has the power to flex is authority to enforce laws, if nothing more. Still will not be a deterrent IMO.

Please, put it in perspective. Ruining a stupid kids life - at least financially - for being a stupid, ignorant little brat is not fair. I recently lost my driver's license temporarily for speeding. I drove a potentially dangerous speed, possibly risking not only myself but other, innocent people (even though the road was clear of traffic) and guess how much I have to pay? 528€. What makes the pirating kiddie more of a scumbag than me?

With a minor a slap on the wrist, community service and a small (~$100) fine to the parents would be more than fair. For adults, same should apply and repeat offenders should have to serve some jail time, even if small time. This should be both for stealing physical CDs in a store and downloading. Honestly if an adult was continuously caught stealing physical CDs from a store they would be fined and sent to jail for a few months, this applies to non grand theft thefts in general. Grand theft on the other hand, tend to have greater fines and sentencing which is fine by me. But yes an album thief regardless of medium should not get a financial burden of a fine especially kids unless you have a repeat offender. In the case of someone who repeats theft, ruin their life, could you trust someone who constantly steals? If you ran a business wouldn't you like to know someone you may hire has repeatedly stolen albums online, if they do that what makes you think that they wouldn't steal from the company? So definitely tarnish repeat thieves, give a small slap on the wrist for first offenders and hope it scares them enough.

Jon Schaffer's stock keeps going up in my eyes. Fuck I'm gonna go buy an Iced Earth Tee now.

Aye, me too. Ima buy a Tee and the CD.

 

[Lowberg]

get this one

 

[DanLights]

Just to put it out there, here's the statement from Iced Earth:

ICED EARTH’s Jon Schaffer comments on Century Media’s file sharing lawsuit:

“It has come to my attention that Century Media is suing fans over illegal downloads of (among others) our latest album ‘Dystopia’. I felt it was important to clarify that we had no knowledge of this motion and were, sadly, not asked permission.

We all know the music industry is changing. We have been adapting to this m
odel by embracing legal streaming services such as Spotify and by bringing our music to places we have never played before by touring our proverbial asses off.

As much as we respect that the labels are having a harder time selling music, we feel this is a misguided effort and want to make sure our fans know we would have not given our consent would we have been asked.”

From what he said, he's not even gonna try to stop it, sounds to me like an easy way to make sure fans don't hate you and stop buying your shit while the whole thing goes on regardless.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

I seriously doubt that Century Media is happy he threw them under the bus.

 

[exoslime]

$0.05? per song? that is fu***ing ridiculous *

Just to put it out there, here's the statement from Iced Earth:

ICED EARTH’s Jon Schaffer comments on Century Media’s file sharing lawsuit:

“It has come to my attention that Century Media is suing fans over illegal downloads of (among others) our latest album ‘Dystopia’. I felt it was important to clarify that we had no knowledge of this motion and were, sadly, not asked permission.

We all know the music industry is changing. We have been adapting to this m
odel by embracing legal streaming services such as Spotify and by bringing our music to places we have never played before by touring our proverbial asses off.

As much as we respect that the labels are having a harder time selling music, we feel this is a misguided effort and want to make sure our fans know we would have not given our consent would we have been asked.”

does jon schaffer even know that those are not their "fans" who downloading and sharing there albums? a "fan" most likely bought it on cd or bought it from itunes.. but not got it from torrent and spit the band an the label in the face with that kind of action

 

[drew_drummer]

Listening on Spotify or Pandora is inferior to many of us who enjoy using our cd player.

I don't care if these 7,000 people broke the law. Scapegoating them like this is chickenshit. What a mess the music industry is. Until someone can explain to me why downloading a bunch of 1s and 0s costs MORE than purchasing a CD, I'll have no sympathy for any record label. How about reducing the price of downloaded songs from $0.99 to $0.05? Scarred.

Oh fuck off you cunting hippy bastard clit-tard.

 

[drew_drummer]

Oh and for my money... I've got a CD for £10. I've got a download for £8. I'm going download regardless. I don't listen to CD's. They just take up space on my shelf. 9 times out of 10 the artwork is bollocks, has no real connection to the music, and matters not a jot to me as a listener.

 

[tarbh666]

Ha ha! I admit to downloading albums and if I like them I buy them, if I don't I delete them. Simple as. Internet has taken away the surprise factor in being a first day buyer because some fans can't wait til the release date. In an ironic, twist of fate kinda way I'd love to be able sue record companies for purchasing shit albums pre-internet days. I remember before internet times spending a lot of money on albums that turned out to be rubbish (funnily enough CM released them examples being later day Samael, Tiamat, Morgoth etc...). Not enough QC being exercised by labels and bands now. And this is coming from a musician. I much prefer the physical format than a bunch of code stored away on an electronic device. Vinyl all the way!! Anybody else notice the resurgence in popularity of cassettes again????

 

[Skinny Viking]

Anybody else notice the resurgence in popularity of cassettes again????

no

and neither did you

 

[SocialNumb]

I remember before internet times spending a lot of money on albums that turned out to be rubbish

I don't know about where you live but where I live you can listen to any album prior to buying it right in the store. It's been that way forever now.

 

[timislegend]

I don't listen to CD's. They just take up space on my shelf.

^yes

...and if i really cared about the artwork ...i would rather support the artist by purchasing some original art directly from him/her (if i really like the art). but i won't. because i don't care about artwork when i listen to music.

for some people it's like popcorn at the movie theater. for others, the garnish on your steak dinner.

 

[Skinny Viking]

I don't know about where you live but where I live you can listen to any album prior to buying it right in the store. It's been that way forever now.

not here .. or better said, not in all stores here.

Some stores would do that but they also didn't always have what you were looking for. The ones that did have what you were looking for didn't always have a listening station

you also can't buy beer or wine at the 7-11 here so I'm guessing, like that, it varies on location

 

[SocialNumb]

^ That sucks. This one place I used to go to allowed you to ask a sales person to open the CD and check it out on one of their players through headphones. I suppose they just re-shrink wrapped it if you didn't buy it. Never did ask, I'm not sure if that place is open anymore either.

I don't know what the alcohol laws are in my state but they don't really matter because those indian owned stores around my house don't give a shit as long as they know you and you're of age. Supermarkets however have all kinds of silly hours and crap to do with sunday for some reason.

 

[Skinny Viking]

not to go off topic for too much longer but yeah, same thing here with alcohol. Something to do with PA being a commonwealth or something ... liquor stores are actually "state stores", until about 3 years ago you couldn't go buy a bottle of vodka on sunday

they changed it a few years to where they can be open until 5 on sundays if they want to and supermarkets are actually now allowed to stock wine and shit if they want but not all do

you can still buy beer up until 2am on any night of the week though

anyway ... buy cds

or don't

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

What's wrong with your record stores? I live Cousinfuckingville Buttsextan, and in every store around here you can either listen to the albums on headphones or ask the clerk to put it on the store's hifi

 

[Skinny Viking]

What's wrong with your record stores? I live Cousinfuckingville Buttsextan, and in every store around here you can either listen to the albums on headphones or ask the clerk to put it on the store's hifi

As I said, I think a lot of it has to do with certain stores and locations

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

We have precisely 3 record stores in the San Francisco Bay Area that I am aware of, and you can listen to some of the stuff there. Rasputins SF, Rasputins Berkeley, and Amoeba Berkeley (I am not aware of any others but I could very well be wrong). All three have really good metal sections. I usually buy on Amazon, however. (For some reason I get the feeling Rasputins' revenue might not be coming from cd sales).