RIAA and Piracy

[thethingthatlurks]

http://gizmodo.com/5587306/the-riaa-spent-58-million-suing-file-sharers-got-2-back

Ok, I know piracy is illegal, but is fighting it really worthwhile? As per the article, the RIAA only got a 2% return on their legal investment, which I believe is known as an "EPIC FAIL" in the industry. So to add some discussion, a) is a legal fight against piracy even feasable, and b) if so, what would work, as suing for millions is apparently a dead end?

Oh yeah, I'm not trying to defend pirates, or unnecessarily defame the RIAA (they do that themselves just fine), but I do question their methods.

 

[Kagim]

No one likes the RIAA on both sides.

Both the Anti-Downloaders and pro Downloaders think they are a bunch of stupid fucks.

Rather then fight more companies should go the ways of blizzard and steam, making connecting online to play a treat with tons of features rather then something you are forced to do.

As well offer infinite downloads of your registered games so that losing the disk doesn't mean buying the it again.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

http://gizmodo.com/5587306/the-riaa-spent-58-million-suing-file-sharers-got-2-back

Ok, I know piracy is illegal, but is fighting it really worthwhile? As per the article, the RIAA only got a 2% return on their legal investment, which I believe is known as an "EPIC FAIL" in the industry. So to add some discussion, a) is a legal fight against piracy even feasable, and b) if so, what would work, as suing for millions is apparently a dead end?

Oh yeah, I'm not trying to defend pirates, or unnecessarily defame the RIAA (they do that themselves just fine), but I do question their methods.

Considering it's a legal incvestment as well as a collections investment, it is pretty low. Collection departments are companies trying to get their lost money's worth usually come up anywhere between 20%-60% percent.

2%... Just... Wow

 

[Mcupobob]

Fighing piracy is just going to bankrupt alot of people and waste alot of money.

 

[FrostyChick]

If there is a way to effectively fight pirates we haven't found it yet and it's looking doubtful that we'll ever find it.

 

[Mekado]

2% is extremely low but they knew beforehand they wouldn't make a profit from it.It's used as a deterrent, a long-term strategy to scare downloaders into submission.I'm sure they're fully aware they haven't even caught 1% of illegal downloaders but seeing headlines such as "man sued for 10M$ for 200 songs" scared a lot of them into getting back into legality, thinking they might be the next.

Besides, the RIAA is ridiculously rich, i'm willing to bet 58M$ is a drop in the ocean.

Reminds me when i was a teen and CD's cost around 20-25$ each, they were telling us there were no way in hell they could sell it for cheaper.Funny how when the piracy started to hit hard, the price of CD's went down to around 12$, lying much RIAA ?

Edit : TLDR ; They damn well know Joe nobody dosen't have a million dollars to pay for their lawsuit, it's just a way to terrorize (shifty) people.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

2% is extremely low but they knew beforehand they wouldn't make a profit from it.It's used as a deterrent, a long-term strategy to scare downloaders into submission.I'm sure they're fully aware they haven't even caught 1% of illegal downloaders but seeing headlines such as "man sued for 10M$ for 200 songs" scared a lot of them into getting back into legality, thinking they might be the next.

But stories like this just nullify any deterrent these lawsuits might have been. If the RIAA can expect to lose >80% of their legal investment, how can they possibly sustain a string of these lawsuits? If anything, this affirms the notion that piracy cannot be stopped, and anybody reading these articles would know about it.