Victory for Online Privacy

THE RULING YESTERDAY against the RIAA is a big victory for online privacy. The major record labels (EMI, Sony, Warner, Universal, BMG) say that they’ll continue the lawsuits, but it will be more difficult and much more costly. Specifically, the ruling means that they need to go through a judge to obtain someone’s identity, instead of running their own law enforcement operation. Shockingly, the major labels have yet to take us up on our demand that they give the ill-gotten money back to families– we suspect that they’re waiting to make that announcement on Christmas morning in a heartwarming reconciliation with their former customers (the major labels are renown for their gentle touch).

A series of updates:

-News site p2pnet.net was hit yesterday in part of a large scale hacker attack that apparently affected a number of other websites, including NASA. All the p2pnet web files and archives were deleted, but they should be back up and running very soon. More here.

–Nice flyer photo from RT in Burlington, Ontario (Canada). I can’t decide what I like best about this picture: the flames, the slogan above the flyer, or the horse in the corner. RT makes a good point that, "even those of us who live outside the jurisdiction of the RIAA are affected by the greed of huge record companies." He’s right: the major record labels use the RIAA as a front for their dirty tricks, but it’s the major labels themselves that are the real problem.

-A clever video that details the record industry’s fiendish behavior is now circulating on filesharing networks. It’s called "RIAAmafia" — try searching for it.

-There’s an interesting interview with the Goo-Goo Dolls on fansforpeace.org. Myshele Goldberg was nice enough to edit it for Downhill Battle readers to focus more on music industry issues. Read the interview.

-As we’ve noted before, Downhill Battle now has a friendster account, so if you use it, why not be our friend and make us friends with your friends. The email is: friendster|at|downhillbattle.org.