Any sort of goodwill remaining in my heart towards the music "industry" is now _gone_. Fuck the RIAA and fuck each and every label that co-operates with them for allowing them to flat-out take advantage of a naive college student running a search engine. The fact that the settlement provided that the student was allowed to _refute_ the claims the RIAA made (effectively, in exchange for the RIAA saying he wasn't stealing anything) in exchange for his $12,000 says two words to me...

Shakedown

...and...

Terrorism.

Fuck the RIAA.

Any sort of goodwill remaining in my heart towards the music "industry" is now _gone_. Fuck the RIAA and fuck each and every label that co-operates with them for allowing them to flat-out take advantage of a naive college student running a search engine. The fact that the settlement provided that the student was allowed to _refute_ the claims the RIAA made (effectively, in exchange for the RIAA saying he wasn't stealing anything) in exchange for his $12,000 says two words to me...

Shakedown

...and...

Terrorism.

Fuck the RIAA.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Make a donation to help him recoup his $12k that was stolen here...
http://chewplastic.com/

] Weiss says the RIAA wanted to send a deterrent message
] others who had similar services up on their college
] campuses. "Nobody is above the law," she said. "And that
] is the important thing to remember here."

If these search engines are really search engines and not simply used for piracy then the RIAA, apparently, is above the law.

Messages sent:
1. In the United States of America you get exactly as much justice as you can afford.

2. The financial details of a court settlement are more important then the moral details.

3. The RIAA will get you even if what you are doing is only tangentally related to their interests.

] "They agreed to allow Jesse to deny their allegations.
] They agreed to dismiss the case and all allegations
] against him," the father said. "Basically they agreed
] that he didn't do anything wrong, but [they're] taking
] his 12 grand."
]
] Weiss says the RIAA wanted to send a deterrent message
] others who had similar services up on their college
] campuses. "Nobody is above the law," she said. "And that
] is the important thing to remember here."

The RIAA and the MPAA scare the shit out of me. All they have to do is decide that what you are working on is "Napster like", and you are pretty much screwed. They are attacking anyone who dosen't look like they'd be able to put up a fight.. They are out of control, and apparently above the law.

I fully agree with Dagmar, this has all the style of a mob shakedown.

] "The people who run these Napster networks know full well
] what they are doing: Operating a sophisticated network
] designed to enable widespread music thievery," RIAA
] President Cary Sherman said in a statement issued April 3.

Non-infringing uses be damned.. Search engines are now akin to dual-use facilities, for the development of TMP, Tools of Mass Piracy.

Justice needs to be more affordable.