RIAA Paid Lawyers $16M to Recover $391k

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It doesn't take a mathematician to realize spending $16 million to recover $391,000 isn’t very smart at all.

The RIAA paid Holmes Roberts & Owen $9,364,901 in 2008, Jenner & Block more than $7,000,000, and Cravath Swain & Moore $1.25 million, to pursue its "copyright infringement" claims, in order to recover a mere $391,000. [ps there were many other law firms feeding at the trough too; these were just the ones listed among the top 5 independent contractors.]
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Well the intent is to scare people enough to get them to stop file sharing, so it may be "acceptable loss" as far as they're concerned.
 
Well at that rate they'll eventually go bankrupt. Unfortunately, that isn't going to be soon enough.
 
To bad scaring the public into not file sharing has so far worked REAL well for them.

fucking bag of dicks.
 
I think it's long-term plan to create precedents allowing them to spend less money in court and in general, especially if they can make ISPs cave on these issues. They want to make us feel like their resources are bottomless and we can not win in the long-term.
 
Commander FAT said:
I get the feelings these numbers aren't entirely accurate.
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and why not? lawyers cost a lot, court cases with this stuff rages on for quite some time, and usually judges either throw it out or reduce the fine. seems like logical numbers to me.
 
I dont get this "its to stop people to stop file sharing" rubbish. Arent they meant to be getting money back that Pirates is denying them from getting in the first place. Paying such ammounts of money for such little return makes no sense especially if its to scare others to stop fie sharing so they can gain money.
 
steve30x said:
I dont get this "its to stop people to stop file sharing" rubbish. Arent they meant to be getting money back that Pirates is denying them from getting in the first place. Paying such ammounts of money for such little return makes no sense especially if its to scare others to stop fie sharing so they can gain money.
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It is about money but you're missing the big picture. They don't care about the money they lose short term; what they're looking at is long term losses prevented.

Basically, by serving thousands of lawsuits, they are hoping to create an environment where file sharing is discouraged. Their theory is that if people are too scared to download music, they will buy it (hence enriching the RIAA).

They are betting that they will gain far more in the future by preventing piracy than they lose paying their lawyers now.

Of course, most of us know that a song download does not equal a song bought. That's the truly hysterical thing that they don't understand, and why they will eventually fail.
 
THRESHIN said:
and why not? lawyers cost a lot, court cases with this stuff rages on for quite some time, and usually judges either throw it out or reduce the fine. seems like logical numbers to me.
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Actually, I was kinda thinking the same thing. Guess I was thinking about how Hollywood studios manage to "lose" money on any and every major motion picture (similar to this).

If Hollywood uses crazy accounting, why wouldn't the RIAA?
 
↑　What the mey is the the preccedent crap. Get one case where someone pays 3 billion$ for "sharing" 10 songs, and there shall be little to no reason why everyone that shares 10 songs wont owe them a billion. As there is 100 million people on the internet, that means well all owe $100000000000000000. which is more than $16 million but lots of 0's.
 
Are we sure we're not talking about the government here? This sounds way to much like there sort of accounting.
 
They are going about it the wrong way if you ask me, they are just targetting P2P users because they upload at the same time as they download whatever it is they are downloading.

Once they start targetting millions of people, everyone will just turn to usenet or rapidshare etc, pure download with no uploading, then what will these shit pushers do to put the frighteners on people ?

Nothing is going to stop people from downloading illegal stuff from the internet, no matter how right or wrong it is, everyday they maybe scare 50 people into stopping using P2P software, but about 2 million new web users join the internet everyday, so no matter how hard they try they are always fighting a losing battle and eventually people will give up on p2p and use other software or websites that work on the principle of downloading stuff with no uploading and it will force these cock biters into bribing officials to force powers onto our ISP's, so that our isps start using DPI equipment and start scanning everything we do on the net and then report us to the RIAA or the equivelant for whatever country we are in.
 
I get this feeling there should be some sort of law that prevents people from filing frivolous civil suits against other parties with the intention of depriving both parties involved of large amounts of their cash.

Seems about as immoral as file-sharing if not more so because these lawsuits are actually costing everyone involved loads of cash while file sharing technically doesn't yield a loss to either party. Hell, it seems like artists benefit from the exposure more so than they lose out.

Good news though, these lawsuits seem to be costing the RIAA/MPAA a ridiculous sum of money so with any luck they shouldn't last long, especially when the damages awarded are about the same as if they had sold themselves into slavery.
 
dr.stevil said:
they (the government) spends retarded amounts of money with little to no benefit to the tax payers
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Is everyone aware that the government isn't some monolithic entity, but that its an amalgamation of several branches, agencies, etc. each with their own interests and focus?
 
I work at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Thanks for the free money.
 
NahBrah said:
Is everyone aware that the government isn't some monolithic entity, but that its an amalgamation of several branches, agencies, etc. each with their own interests and focus?
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It functions better that way. But right now, we have a situation where it is trying to make itself into a single entity with central control in Washington.
 
Lets put this another way: That's $16mil that is not being paid out to singers, songwriters and band members.
 
Parmenides said:
It functions better that way. But right now, we have a situation where it is trying to make itself into a single entity with central control in Washington.
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Yes, Obama is trying to unite the government to take over America hurr durr you're right we should have a non-unified government where things like the corrupt MMS can suck big oils dick every day unchecked because Cheney stacked it with his cronies and made regulation irrelevant.
 
NahBrah said:
Yes, Obama is trying to unite the government to take over America hurr durr you're right we should have a non-unified government where things like the corrupt MMS can suck big oils dick every day unchecked because Cheney stacked it with his cronies and made regulation irrelevant.
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ummmmm.....:confused::confused::confused:
 
NahBrah said:
Yes, Obama is trying to unite the government to take over America hurr durr you're right we should have a non-unified government where things like the corrupt MMS can suck big oils dick every day unchecked because Cheney stacked it with his cronies and made regulation irrelevant.
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So you know there's this thing called the "Constitution" and in it it talks about these other things called "separation of powers".

You should read it sometime; it's a pretty fascinating read. ;)
 
computerpro3 said:
So you know there's this thing called the "Constitution" and in it it talks about these other things called "separation of powers".

You should read it sometime; it's a pretty fascinating read. ;)
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It also has this wonderful thing about separation of church and state, but that is for a different thread.....

On topic:

It just goes to show, what we all knew from the beginning, this has nothing to do with the money. They are trying to hold on to the archaic forms of business that made them so much money in the past instead of embracing the future. Imagine if they used that money to change the business model they are using. Instead of alienating customers, embracing them and moving away from this radio playable mentality. One can only dream.....
 
Cannon_Fodder said:
It also has this wonderful thing about separation of church and state, but that is for a different thread.....
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Actually, that phrase appears nowhere in the Constitution. Hence why there is so much debate over it. It certainly states that there shall be no favoritism shown to a religion, and that there will be no official religion,but it never actually says says separation of church and state.
 
Shareholders should be suing. That doesn't sound like smart business to me.
 
Does that dollar total including all the people that settled out of court after receiving a "bill" from the RIAA/MPAA? If not then there is your answer.

The lawsuits with the big settlements that make the big news, are just to scare others into settling when they get a RIAA "bill" in the mail.
 
NahBrah said:
Yes, Obama is trying to unite the government to take over America hurr durr you're right we should have a non-unified government where things like the corrupt MMS can suck big oils dick every day unchecked because Cheney stacked it with his cronies and made regulation irrelevant.
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This. The notion of state control is madness.. There was a time back in the late 1700's when there was only 2.5 millions Americans to deal with and a decentralized government could have worked. There are now over 300 MILLION people in this country, that can't be managed or trusted by the individual states ( see CA, MA, AZ etc..)

The Founding Father's had a good idea as to how this could be run but I don't think that they could have even wrapped their head around the current population size as that number of people would have been unheard of at the time.

BTW.. the RIAA IS NOT PART OF THE GOVERNMENT!!!,, just had to get that out since this thread has wandered.

.02
 
was it a waste? maybe, maybe not. To my mind this is a form of terrorism. over the years terrorism has proven to be a very effective form of social manipulation. the big problem here is that the people doing the pirating are likely to be younger and oblivious to consequences. So "terrorizing" them via suits.... not so much.
 
Volkum said:
Well at that rate they'll eventually go bankrupt. Unfortunately, that isn't going to be soon enough.
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The government would just bail them out like other big businesses. Sad part is that no one is learning from their own mistakes since the government is there to step in and bail everyone out.
 
overthetop said:
The government would just bail them out like other big businesses. Sad part is that no one is learning from their own mistakes since the government is there to step in and bail everyone out.
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Oh, they are learning from their mistakes, it is just that they don't care. If the government is willing to bail them out, why not take the big risks and ope for a huge payoff. What do they have to lose? Uncle Sam will catch them if they fall.
 
NahBrah said:
Yes, Obama is trying to unite the government to take over America hurr durr you're right we should have a non-unified government where things like the corrupt MMS can suck big oils dick every day unchecked because Cheney stacked it with his cronies and made regulation irrelevant.
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Yes, with history as our guide, all the governments that were centralized fared much better.

Bahahhhahahhaaa.





...Of course you already knew that, you mentioned Cheney after all. It was the GOP that controlled both the White House and Congress from 2003-2007. Oooops. :rolleyes:
 
Oh poopers! I didn't mean for my comment to send this thread down a political debate path. Sorry about that.
 
Getting back to the original topic... The RIAA probably wrote it all off as a business expense, so the taxpayers paid for it!

When will people get it through their thick skulls that a lot of the corruption of government is steering money into the pockets of the very corporations that are complaining that democrats are going to take everybody's rights and turn the country fascist.... Basically they're afraid democrats might turn off the spigot of corporate welfare (even if they really aren't, which is kind of sad).

If we want to end "socialism" we should start with the corporate socialism, like the billions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks to the oil industry, and put that money into creating jobs for people to make equipment needed for clean energy!

As for the RIAA/MPAA, hell, talk about corruption. They aren't lawmakers, they're a corporation... Yet they were the ones that wrote these anti-piracy laws. Worst thing about it is it's the suits that are suing and getting all the money, not the freaking artists that worked their asses off to create the material. They're like the new mob, running a racket and taking "protection money" for themselves-- but now they have the taxpayers footing the bill for it!

Government rule might suck, but corporate rule using the government as puppets, while convincing everybody else otherwise is just insidious.
 
UrielDagda said:
Getting back to the original topic... The RIAA probably wrote it all off as a business expense, so the taxpayers paid for it!

When will people get it through their thick skulls that a lot of the corruption of government is steering money into the pockets of the very corporations that are complaining that democrats are going to take everybody's rights and turn the country fascist.... Basically they're afraid democrats might turn off the spigot of corporate welfare (even if they really aren't, which is kind of sad).

If we want to end "socialism" we should start with the corporate socialism, like the billions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks to the oil industry, and put that money into creating jobs for people to make equipment needed for clean energy!

As for the RIAA/MPAA, hell, talk about corruption. They aren't lawmakers, they're a corporation... Yet they were the ones that wrote these anti-piracy laws. Worst thing about it is it's the suits that are suing and getting all the money, not the freaking artists that worked their asses off to create the material. They're like the new mob, running a racket and taking "protection money" for themselves-- but now they have the taxpayers footing the bill for it!

Government rule might suck, but corporate rule using the government as puppets, while convincing everybody else otherwise is just insidious.
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That's why we want smaller government. The smaller the system and the less power they have, the less bribery that goes on. If congress wouldn't be passing through so many bills, earmarks, and semi-monopolistic deals for every special interest group then big businesses would have to look elsewhere to do their scheming.
 
UrielDagda said:
If we want to end "socialism" we should start with the corporate socialism
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agree 100%

the tax payers shouldn't be bailing out companies that can't figure out how to walk a straight line (GM and Chrysler for example). Can't turn a profit? Either figure out a new business plan, let someone else take the reins that can or close your doors. Don't put the Amercian tax payers on the hook for their incompetence
 
Parmenides said:
That's why we want smaller government. The smaller the system and the less power they have, the less bribery that goes on. If congress wouldn't be passing through so many bills, earmarks, and semi-monopolistic deals for every special interest group then big businesses would have to look elsewhere to do their scheming.
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Well we need to figure out how to reform the system to work for the people instead of the corporations.. If government was shrunken, but the only ones left are the ones that are corrupt, what's the point? Government is supposed to be the protector of the people's interest, not the lube for corporate ass-reaming.

If we're not careful, we'll have a government shrunken down at the behest of conglomerates that's so small the entire country would just be a wholly owned corporate subsidiary of Halliburton or something. If nationalization of everything is evil, well, I think the privatization of everything would be even worse.
 
I guess that trying to scare people is the only thing the RIAA can do, but seriously, pirating is a HUGE, HUGE community. Thats like trying crack down on that whole "Anime" fad, rofl.
 
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