Wow. Their heads finally got so far up their asses that they cameout the other side again. Spewing shit like that.

Huh... I never knew that liegitimate cd's cant be found at the same place I play 3 card monte.

Good to know...

Does anyone still take anything from the RIAA seriously, except for their lawsuits, of course?

Oh...wait. That's about all that comes from them.

Nevermind.

A-Fucking-Mazing

Why I'm not buying music these days:
I only listen to Podcasts.

If it were a legit RIAA product, you'd have to pay $15 for two good tunes and 10 filler tracks. Thanks for clearing that up!

I actually started buying CDs again recently. But only from artists listed here. -> www.riaaradar.com

LOVE their tagline: If it's something that you'll really want to buy, it didn't come from us."

Wow. Just, wow.

I guess the only way to be absolutely certain that my music money isn't going to organized crime is to download it all for free from now on.

Thank God this important piece of journalism clued me in on the issues.

I feel stupid now. I knew something was too good to be true about this Menudo box set.

Also, didn't Comcast get hit for doing this recently?
[consumerist.com]

I didn't see the tag showing the affiliation in this VNR. Is that something the station is supposed to do themselves?

The production values, scripting and overall feel of that vid are pretty cheezy.

I think it was pirated.

That it seriously one of the lowest quality VNR's I've ever seen, especially when its from conglomerates who are allegedly media professionals.

It really sucks. That's the best way i can put it.

Interesting. My office firewall blocked it "because it falls under the category: Tasteless & Offensive."

I'm sure that sums it up.

@SactoKev: I agree. I just went through the Army's broadcast school, and on day 1 I learned to keep the camera steady. Actually, I already knew that, we just learned why. That camera man needs to be shot!

Wow, it sounds so real.

That's hilarious. RIAA is such a waste of an organization. gotta love their ways to tell pirated music.
Reason 1: if price is too low...Of course because RIAA tries to screw you out of every dollar. No way they sell a cd for what people actually want to pay for it.
Reason 2 people covered
Reason 3: package...yeah, because i buy cd's for the packaging
Reason 4: flee market is an unusual place? that's the best place to get deals. i guess people can't resell cd's either.
reason 5: sound quality? seriously? sound quality of MP3's is as good if not the same. Unless you are professionally mixing then no one will ever notice.

Allow me to translate their helpful hints:

* If you do not feel screwed by the price, it must be pirated

* If you would actually want to buy it, it must be pirated.

* We spent over 10,000 man hours designing the album cover. Guess how much time we spent on the actual album.

* Buying used CDs is like stealing bread from the mouths of children.

* We think you are stupid enough to believe that there is some sort of degradation in quality when copying music in a digital audio format. The truth is that the quality of our products have declined over the years and we just needed an excuse for the last dozen or so albums you purchased at Walmart this decade.

@bravo369:

Re: sound quality:

And what's to stop music from being pirated in lossless formats, for that matter?

Anyone else find it ironic that they're talking about how these billions of dollars are unknowingly going to organized crime, and then the RIAA spokesperson or whoever he is was standing in front of a giant portrait of Frank Sinatra? Anyone?

Does anyone else find it 'interesting' that the RIAA spokesman is in front of a photo of Frank Sinatra.. someone rumored to be connected to the 'mob'?

I think Old Blue Eyes should climb down off that poster and strangle that moron doing the "interview". The mob could just handle it from there.

I fell asleep watching that fake piece of journalism. No TV station in the entire country is going to pick up that piece of trash.

@youbastid: Nothing was ever proved.

You mean Power Ballads and Malt Shop Memories are pirated? My world is shattering.

@MoCo: Obviously you've never lived in Alabama.

Isn't most news on TV pre-canned in some form or another? Seems to me we had a section in one of my broadcasting classes that talked about how to use these canned pieces.

I may just break my longstanding boycott of the news shows on my local Fox station just to see if they air this piece. If anyone will, it will be them.

This is why I never watch local news. 99% Fud and crap.

What's with the cuffs? I don't believe there has been a single criminal action taken against the P2P users they're targeting. Everything has been civil - thus, no handcuffs.

They're trying to scare people into thinking an officer of the law is going to show up, cuff you, and take you to jail if you download music. That's complete and utter BS, FUD, you name it.

You would think the United States government would step in and put a stop to this. You effectively have a private company here, threatening citizens with arrest, when they have no jurisdiction to do so. That seems entirely wrong to me, on so many levels.

@EvilSquirrel:
* We think you are stupid enough to believe that there is some sort of degradation in quality when copying music in a digital audio format. The truth is that the quality of our products have declined over the years and we just needed an excuse for the last dozen or so albums you purchased at Walmart this decade.

You totally beat me to it...we discussed this at length in my Sound Design class. You know, talking about how digital rocked because it could be copied over and over with no degradation.

The RIAA are idiots.

Follow up, just watched the video. Nevermind. They're targeting real criminals who actually burn & sell pirated music. I have no sympathy for them and they DO go to jail, for good reason.

@jimconsumer: Yeah, it sounds logical that the US would stop threats of criminal detention from non-government agencies, but who's funding *cough*lobbying*cough*bribing*cough our government?

Whew! I need some cough drops.

That 'list of tips' absolutely screams 'powerpoint presentation!!'

I have to say Rofl to this. I have been to that area in Los Angeles that they show in the video. I saw the people selling CD's and obvious bootleg DVD's that were still in the theatres.

So the CD guys, some random shop with a table full of CD's and one is playing on the stereo. But if you couldn't tell they were bootlegged you were a moron. poorly scanned and printed covers and white cases... If you got caught buying these and claimed you didn't know they were fake, you should be shot.

Anyhow they didn't have anything good anyway, really lame mixes or lame trance cd's.

FTV: "the sound quality of pirated cds is often atrocious"

actually, its 192kbit cbr or better, better than itunes. pirates have standards too...

"A product you would actually want, that is equal in value to what we're charging you for it."

Best line ever.

@SactoKev: "Alleged" is a tad generous. They're businesspeople who make a big show of claiming to know about media production. The problem is, a chimpanzee can make a better ad.

Listening to pirated CDs may cause testicular cancer...

@socalrob: Exactly. Seriously, who the hell buys pirated stuff and thinks it's real and legit? If you're buying a DVD of a movie that's still in theaters, it's probably safe to say you know it's pirated. Guess the RIAA's moving on to targeting the nonexistent "too stupid to function" customer base.

Hey, at least this VNR wasn't about file-sharers...

@jimconsumer: It won't be long before copyright infringement IS a criminal matter, thanks to lobbyists...

The good news is that stations are now required by the FCC to identify the source of these kinds of reports, and stations have been fined bigtime lately for "forgetting" to do so.

You'd think the bad inkjet printouts the bootleggers usually use for the cover art ought to be a bit of a tipoff that you're not buying something legit...

One of the outdoor fleamarkets I used to shop at was teeming with this stuff for years until local cops finally got the hint. The bootleggers eventually started parking their vans far away so that they wouldn't be instantly seized with the stall contents.

@elislider: MP3s are lossy, so the cheapskate who buys a disc that was ripped-and-burned that way and then re-rips that is going to get what they paid for quality-wise.

PS: I'm big on buying used discs and avoiding stores that think 1 ordinary new CD is worth $19-20. For some bands, you can buy all their albums used and make your own dream compilation for the price of 1 new compilation from the mall ;)

I like the "too go to be true" warning. You're right, the record labels almost never put out good compilations, they're always dreck like the NOW series.

*good

Their old [url=http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1774791]video[/url] was much better made... this one is kinda sad.

@SpaceCat85: Most people won't be able to tell the difference between a "lossy" MP3 and pure CD audio, so it doesn't really matter.

[www.collegehumor.com]

URL embedding doesn't work the same here. :)

@Shadowfire: The I.T. Crowd is hilarious and theiranti-piracy video cracks me up!