How to rebel against registration sites (to those confused, the Times does *not* charge…they only require registration): Always, always put in completely bogus and ridiculous demographic information when registering so that such information becomes completely useless. It’s a joke already that orgs like the Times think their registration is somehow telling them who their users are…

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0718/p13s02-almp.html

discusses the process of cumulative creativity, as does my latest post to Telae Tabulae

From the Monitor article:

“Paul McCartney conceded that the tune ‘Yesterday,’ one of the most popular pop ballads of all time, may have been based on McCartney’s subconscious borrowing from an old Nat King Cole song called ‘Answer Me.'”

1. First they sued file-sharing companies.
2. Then they sued ISPs.
3. Then they sued “super-sharers”.
4. Now they’re suing anyone.

The supposition that they’d never actually sue an individual was of relative comfort during stage 1; the supposition that they wouldn’t arrest an individual now is somehow not as comforting. I think the fact that it’s even become a possibility says a lot about the situation.

As an aside, it constantly amazes me the number of people willing to jump to the defence of large media corporations (be they news, music, movies, or even computer games) and their pricing policies. They have entire marketing departments to do that for them, their motivation being to make money. What’s your motivation in doing their work for them?

Talk of arrest may be a bit rash. Thus far, all the RIAA’s suits have been civil cases. As was repeatedly made clear in the DOJ IP lawyers� interview on Slashdot last week, none of these cases have involved criminal charges, yet.

-kd

The president of the Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group for the largest music labels, said lawyers will pursue downloaders regardless of personal circumstances because it would deter other Internet users.

“The idea really is not to be selective, to let people know that if they’re offering a substantial number of files for others to copy, they are at risk,” Cary Sherman said. “It doesn’t matter who they are.”

Here is the full story.

It may not leave their claim much to stand on, but it may be enough to get a subpoena and scare the hell out of some worried mother. I was just wondering if they were contending that the act of making such files available was enough to constitute infringement (they seem to think it does, at least from what I’ve heard).