RIAA Demands $75 Trillion from LimeWire

Pro question: If you are robbed of 50 bucks, can you claim that the thief stole 50,000?.
If the law said you can claim that much, sure.

Even if music piracy should be punishable, I don't see how Limewire could be liable for it. It was other people actually putting files on there.
Even if bank robbery should be punishable, I don't see how the getaway driver could be liable for it. It was other people actually robbing the bank.

Facilitating an illegal act is just as illegal as committing a crime.
 
14MB per song? How will I ever fit my music collection onto my hard drive??!

For what it matters I have a version of a song thats 80 MB compressed. I probably have one bigger
 
Do people still use limewire? Surely its easier just to download whole discographies off torrentz?
 
As I recall, musicians make their cash from concerts, not record sales.

In other words, the era of music producers is waning. We're going to enter an era where music is mostly-free and you're encouraged to buy it to show support, but it won't be required.

Fight the ocean and you will drown.

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75 trillion is insane. A few billion I could understand, but nobody even has that much damned money!

You say that like it's a good thing.

Also, record deals are essentially loans that you don't have to pay back unless the product of the loans, the record, makes enough money. So basically once you make enough sales past a certain point, you start making a lot of money based on sales.
 
Do people still use limewire? Surely its easier just to download whole discographies off torrentz?

Pro-tip: Once you go lossless you can never go back
 
You say that like it's a good thing.

Also, record deals are essentially loans that you don't have to pay back unless the product of the loans, the record, makes enough money. So basically once you make enough sales past a certain point, you start making a lot of money based on sales.

Yeah, true. This is part of what the whole Petty/Torpedoes mess was about.... which reminds me I need to put up the whole article.
 
Do people still use limewire? Surely its easier just to download whole discographies off torrentz?

Limewire was shut down by court order apparently. I suppose this is how the RIAA likes to add insult to injury while making complete asses of themselves.
 
Pro-tip: Once you go lossless you can never go back

It's very frustrating that there is no lossless major record label legal download service. I can buy CDs and (finally!) high quality mp3s/mp4s, and I can buy lossless of a lot of indie/dance music, but if I wanted to buy REM's only good song, legally, losslessly, I'd have to buy the whole damn album.
 
Ridiculously punitive damages are one thing, but demanding more money than exists in the world from one relatively small-fry company? Are they completely off their rockers?

Just to clarify on a small, meaningless point, but there is far more money than that in the world. Just sayin' ;)
 
Pro-tip: Once you go lossless you can never go back

It's very frustrating that there is no lossless major record label legal download service. I can buy CDs and (finally!) high quality mp3s/mp4s, and I can buy lossless of a lot of indie/dance music, but if I wanted to buy REM's only good song, legally, losslessly, I'd have to buy the whole damn album.

50 bucks says you can't tell the difference between flac and 320 kbps mp3.
 
Just to clarify on a small, meaningless point, but there is far more money than that in the world. Just sayin' ;)

You sure? the US money supply is less than $10 Trillion, about the same in Euros, around $1.5 trillion pounds. And these are with rather broad definitions of money supply, at M1 it would be far less.

Of course, money doesn't actually matter in this case, assets do.
 
50 bucks says you can't tell the difference between flac and 320 kbps mp3.

For what it matters, I can.... without any headphones at all. Or my cheap pair
 
You sure? the US money supply is less than $10 Trillion, about the same in Euros, around $1.5 trillion pounds. And these are with rather broad definitions of money supply, at M1 it would be far less.

Of course, money doesn't actually matter in this case, assets do.

You just answered your own question :p

"Money" in this sense isn't "money supply," and certainly not GDP.

It is assets, or wealth.
 
For what it matters, I can.... without any headphones at all. Or my cheap pair

Then take my wager. I'll convert 3 320kbps mp3s to flac. Along side them I'll put forth 3 flac files that were never compressed. If you can tell which is which I'll give you 50 bucks.
 
Then take my wager. I'll mail you 6 CDs, 3 burned from 320kbps mp3s and 3 burned from flac. If you can identify which is which I will mail you 50 bucks.

But how will I know the FLACs arent originally sourced from the MP3s?
 
50 bucks says you can't tell the difference between flac and 320 kbps mp3.

I work with audio. You can tell the difference on clearer, louder systems, but I'm not the best person for that. The main reason I want lossless is re-conversion. If I am trying to remix someone's work, and I am putting out a finished product that is 320 kbps, and I started by working with audio that is 320 kpbs or an equivalent 256 kbps aac then that audio source will have double compressed. Copy of a copy all that jazz. I want as close to a perfect recreation of sound as I can get when I'm digitally cutting tape.
 
But how will I know the FLACs arent originally sourced from the MP3s?

Damn it, I didn't edit fast enough.

Well, there's no real way for you to know that I didn't cheat. I will proclaim here and now that I won't cheat, but you have no way, short of a third party observing, that I am not lying.

I work with audio. You can tell the difference on clearer, louder systems, but I'm not the best person for that. The main reason I want lossless is re-conversion. If I am trying to remix someone's work, and I am putting out a finished product that is 320 kbps, and I started by working with audio that is 320 kpbs or an equivalent 256 kbps aac then that audio source will have double compressed. Copy of a copy all that jazz. I want as close to a perfect recreation of sound as I can get when I'm digitally cutting tape.

If you have a high-end setup, and you know what to listen for, then yes there's a slight difference.

For what it's worth, if I were doing audio editing, I would always work with lossless. Always. But for the purposes of one's music collection, it's a pointless endeavour.
 
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