Build Date: Tue Jan 21 12:50:20 2025 UTC
... when the space-aliens find our crap in space, and see that it's full
of Forth, they won't be messing with us... 'cause they'll recognise a
bad-ass os when they see one.
-- Juggler Vain
CD Prices Are A Crime
2000-05-11 13:06:36
Fucking FUCK! Who the HELL do the RIAA and the music companies think they are, bitching us out as "thieves" for sharing MP3s on the Internet? What kind of fucking GALL does that take, when they're charged with CRIMINAL COLLUSION to keep the price of CDs up?
The FTC and five of the biggest music distributors settled a case today where the distributors were charged with CRIMINAL COLLUSION in keeping the prices of CDs artificially high. This is a CRIMINAL offense, people -- a conspiratorial crime against the free market and against consumers. The FTC says that the distributors have taken FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHTY MILLION DOLLARS from consumers by colluding and setting minimum pricing. $480,000,000!!!!
Meanwhile the music companies are pointing accusatory fingers at US, Internet music users, for SHARING with other people. They call us thieves and pirates and accuse us of starving poor musicians like Ethiopian warlords starve helpless children. They've been CHARGED by the FTC for stealing from US, but WE are the thieves! Fuck that!
Now, I ask you: are you legally or morally OBLIGATED to let someone steal money out of your pocket? Do you have to stand idly by while someone burgles your home or carjacks your Honda? NOO! So why should you be legally OBLIGATED to be the victim of a CRIMINAL SCHEME to rip you off? Why should you or I be berated for going around the CORRUPT and ILLEGAL compact disc selling practices of the recording industry? I for one don't feel any obligation to be SONY MUSIC's PATSY, and neither should anyone else.
The major BULLSHIT here is that the FTC settled the case too easily. They only asked that the companies stop their criminal practice of minimum pricing for 7 years. No compensation to consumers, no punitive damages, no NOTHING. They should have required that the recording companies immediately DROP their lawsuits against Net music listeners and help FUND the development of sharing tools like Freenet or Gnutella. Write your congressman and demand JUSTICE in this case! Fuck the RIAA and their illegal schemes! We don't have to take their shit!
T O P S T O R I E S
The Future Ain't What It Used To Be
Ideas have taken horrifying shape and rooted into our modern reality. (More...)
The Once & Future King of Dust
Only The Onion could have acquired Infowarts. (More...)
Another Nobel Prize-Winning Author Describes Drunkenness
This book won a Pulitzer Prize. Here's its famous paragraph on getting drunk... (More...)
Why I'm pretty sure JD Vance had sex with a couch
True or false? The answers await us in that magical land where all truths are revealed -- the internet. (More...)
In 2010 Dr. Cheng-Huai Ruan discovered a way to cause a patient with an abnormal heartbeat to get back into a normal rhythm by sticking a finger up the patient's ass. (More...)
WKRP in Cincinnati aired from 1978 through 1982. Howard Hesseman played Dr. Johnny Fever, a DJ from Los Angeles who was fired from his previous job for saying the word "booger" on the air. In the show Hesseman would do some dialogue, introduce a song, and start the song. You'd hear a few notes, but never the whole song. (More...)
C L A S S I C P I G D O G
Poor Metallica. All they want is to continue to put out the same weak "Heavy Metal" they've been churning out since the "And Justice For All" days? and make gooey wads of cash in the process. The problem is, people aren't buying their bound for the heavy metal scrap heap, over-produced, uninspired, tired crap. And let's face it, their various commercial endorsements won't pay for the lifestyle they've become comfortably accustomed to. Resorting to lawsuits makes perfect sense, when you need spending money. But just one lawsuit isn't going to pay their bills. So, to aid Metallica, I've composed an open letter to the boys in the band, with suggestions as to whom else they might sic their lapdog lawyers on... (More...)
Pao Tzu: Obtaining San Pedro Cactus
Horticultural clone master, Pao Tzu, guides you through the ins and outs of stealing hallucinogenic cacti from your neighbors' yards. Ooh la la! (More...)
"Gee, I wish I was older."
"So do I." (More...)
An innocent trip to the Central Market resulted in a severe attack of arachnophobia (and a meal) when a depraved street kid set her vicious pet spider on an unsuspecting shopper. (More...)
It's winter in Idaho, and Boise personality "Lego-Man" reports on how he celebrated Thanksgiving. "I fed my wife, mother and sister wine slurpies!" (More...)
Skunk School -- Learn Why Not To Keep Skunks As Pets
There is an alarming trend in pet purchasing habits this fall. People inspired by the WWII film, "Life is Beautiful" -- the one with that annoying Italian guy -- are buying descented skunks by the millions. (More...)
