Sony sues my High School

[TexasStooge]

I just gotten word from one of my friends that Sony Corp. is suing Nimitz High School because several students were downloading music on their laptops.

I'll have more info as soon as I get it.

[yoda]

Oh dear... that's not good... hope you are not in that group...

[David]

Hmm.... yeah this will be an intresting one. Keep us updated.

[Miss Mary]

That's too bad. Not that kids can purchase songs for $.99 each while at school, they can ask their parents to pay for songs, possibly taking it out of their allowance. A credit card is needed and let me just say, it's quite easy to rack up $20 in a matter of minutes. We pay for every song we download!

http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/

Mary

[TexasStooge]

From what the school principal told me, Sony tried to sue the entire school district last year.

[Lindaloo]

I am so sick of the greedy music industry and their lawsuits. Heard yesterday that 500 more people were served papers to appear in court because of them downloading music from KaZaa.

[TexasStooge]

I am so sick of the greedy music industry and their lawsuits. Heard yesterday that 500 more people were served papers to appear in court because of them downloading music from KaZaa.

I know, same here, but it's the only way to get students who like to download music & other media to STOP DOWNLOADING ON SCHOOL-ISSUED LAPTOPS!!!!!!

Any student at this school caught with Sony related media will be ticketed and/or arrested.

[Lindaloo]

I understand the issue of them downloading music from school. Sure puts the school in a bad position. The judge will just make sure the school district stops them from doing that from now on!!

[TexasStooge]

Most of the downloading sites at school are blocked district-wide by administrators, For some reason, kids seem to find a way around it via proxy #.

[GalvestonDuck]

LOL@ your avatar, Linda.

Have I hatched?

The lawsuits are ridiculous, I agree. That's what they get for making music digital so that it can be saved, preserved, traded, and recorded in it's purest form. It was different back when we used to tape LP's and cassettes for friends. The copy never had the same quality as the original which never truly had the same quality as the studio master version.

On the other hand, I'm all for charging reasonable prices for downloads (music, movies, whatever). And I'm totally in favor of anything that combats bootlegging and piracy.

[Lindaloo]

Your avatar makes me dizzy.LOL

I used to download from Napster. But I only went after 70's and 80's hits you can't find anymore. I never downloaded new stuff nor did I have any Metallica. LOL!! I burned them all to CD and wiped them off my hard drive.

[TexasStooge]

I just found out that the entire school district (Not just my school) is being sued by Sony, looks like the schools are gonna have a round-up!

[Miss Mary]

Am I the only here that sees this as theft? Of course we know many, many local musicians who write, record and perform original music. They equate downloading music illegally to stealing from the neighborhood 7/11 store. And my husband and his sister runs the family business their dad started - making cassettes and CD's for musicians/bands/gospel groups/companies, etc. So you have to realize that's the perspective I'm coming from.

And these are just kids but clearly it is wrong, IMHO.

Just my opinion so please don't flame me. But I feel as though I have to give it too.

Mary

[GalvestonDuck]

Like I said, I'm all in favor of them charging us. Somehow, technology needs to be designed to prevent digital music or movies from being shared and copied. I have a hard time smiling in the face of someone at a party who jokes about how they downloaded "LOTR: The Two Towers" when the movie had only been out for a couple of days. I read other message boards where people fuss about how the stars are already rich enough so "how could it hurt them?" But they don't read the credits of the movies they watch and realize that those in the sound, editing, costume design, special effects, and other departments are the ones who suffer, as well as the original screenwriter (ahem!) and those "actors" who most people don't recognize because they're Screen Actors Guild members in bit parts and one-line roles instead of the main stars.

[TexasStooge]

The FBI & CIA are also teaming up with Sony on the lawsuit against the school district.

The staff is now doing random checks on laptops to look for illegal downloading.

[PTrackerLA]

That's too bad about your school, but I think the lawsuits are ridiculous. I read an article yesterday about a study that had been done on music downloading and they said it has not hurt the sales of records at all. Whether or not this is true I don't know. I will admit to downloading music from time to time, but that doesn't prevent me from still purchasing cds and DVDs from stores. I've bought more CDs in the past few months then I have in past. Maybe artists will try to produce truly good LPs without any "filler" and people wouldn't have that bad feeling that you get after you buy a CD with a song you like only to find the rest of the album is total crap. I usually delete songs soon after downloading them anyway so the RIAA doesn't come knocking .

[blizzard]

Wait until one of those files (songs) contains a malicious virus that wreaks havoc on the downloaders 'puter. Because IT WILL happen sooner or later. At least when you go to a site that sells legitimate downloads, you can be relatively confident that they are clean. I own a Karaoke/DJ business and occasionally need a song but do not want to buy the whole CD. I then go to a pay per download site and purchase it. I run all of my music digitally from my laptop. I do not use CDs anymore. So I am glad they came up with these pay per download sites. I still purchase tons of CD's and rip them into my collection.

[OtherHD]

Am I the only here that sees this as theft? Of course we know many, many local musicians who write, record and perform original music. They equate downloading music illegally to stealing from the neighborhood 7/11 store. And my husband and his sister runs the family business their dad started - making cassettes and CD's for musicians/bands/gospel groups/companies, etc. So you have to realize that's the perspective I'm coming from.

And these are just kids but clearly it is wrong, IMHO.

Just my opinion so please don't flame me. But I feel as though I have to give it too.

Mary

I don't think it's stealing as long as you only download a select few songs off of an album. 99% of the time, I only download at most 3 songs off of an album. The only exception is Liz Phair's latest CD which I downloaded completely, and I admit that I do feel a bit gulity about it. Sometime in the future I will probably just go out and buy it. I love the album and I would hate to have to enjoy it without her getting something in return. Also a lot of what I download are bootleg copies of songs, those that you can only find on soundtracks, rare B-side singles, and songs on import albums. Other than that one case, I have never downloaded a complete album.

[TexasStooge]

By now, 1/2 a dozen students' laptops will be taken up and have it's memory erased and restored back to original settings.

[george_r_1961]

The songs I download are typically oldies that you cannot just walk in a record store and buy anymore. There are only a very few that I have that do not fit into this category. Am I justifying downloading music? No. But I do think its ridiculous to be dragging the FBI into this. The people that should be targeted are the ones that dowload thousands of songs, not someone who downloads a few songs for their own entertainment.