Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Where is RIAA's December 23rd "statement" to the House and Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees?

I keep seeing reports like this one, which appeared in The Northern Star, a publication of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois:

On Dec. 23, Mitch Bainwol, chairman and CEO of the RIAA, issued a statement to the “House and Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees” stating that the RIAA would end the lawsuits in favor of a new graduated response program.
Complete article

Where is this statement? Why isn't it on the RIAA's web site? Why isn't it available to the public online somewhere?

Don't we have a right to know what he's telling our elected officials this time?



Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player

5 comments:

cbcalvin said...

Time for FOI?

Alter_Fritz said...

Ray, what do you expect?
America wants to make the world believe that it is so democratic and open and all, but when it comes to Real openness you must look to sweden!
Papers to gov guys are with exceptions to military stuff largely by default public domain as I understand it.

So letters by "organised content" are very fast very well publicly known:

http://swartz.typepad.com/texplorer/2007/11/pirate-bay-shou.html

Those letter(s) by organised content guys are now on display at archive.org.
what is next? the gavel to gavel recordings or the evidence how organised content in america tries "backdoor dealings" with your politicos?

eZee.se said...

@Alter_Fritz,
"but when it comes to Real openness you must look to sweden!"

You got to look at both of the magicians hands when he is showing you a trick, if you get distracted with his right while his left is doing something else... you will never catch the magician and only see the "effect".
As a citizen of Sweden let me tell you thats how it works here, while its largely true that most of the stuff here is public domain this place is sometimes run like a communist govt and its politicians are trying their best to sell out to big content but seem like they are for the people.
Beatrice Ask is a prime example (google her... not before you eat or you might barf, true slimeball and a shame (as well as a sellout) to my beautiful country)
While showing a fantastic face to foreign countries Sweden is bringing up laws in April where content owners can go straight after (as best as i can put it) ip-address-owners (yes, we all know how reliable that is) and passed the FRA law (google again please) with little thought to huge opposition and demonstrations against it in the capital (where I live).
It had even *illegally* in the past raided thepiratebay servers (google again) mixing political motives with our local police... a big no-no in Sweden. This was 'urged' by the MPAA.

Please note, i am in no way saying my country is bad/dirty/slimy or any such thing... Sweden is populated by some of the prettiest blonde girls and party folk in Europe and boasts a many beautiful conserved forests as well as a fantastic nightlife. Our politicians on the other hand leave a LOT to be desired as they are some of the lowest of the low.

The fact of the matter is, even this text that I am writing is most probably being monitored by the FRA law... which is fine by me, hope they print it out and push it up where the sun does not shine.

Ryan S
www.eZee.se

Scott said...

Unfortunately, "Congress, the federal courts, and parts of the Executive Office of the President that function solely to advise and assist the President, are NOT subject to the FOIA."

The first, best, and usually the only strategy to get a copy of a letter that was written to a Congressional committee is to write to a Congressman who received it and ask for a copy. They can be helpful if they see helpfulness as being in their best interest (and not yours).

If he or she represents your district, or if your policy position is in sympathy with theirs, you may have some success.

If not, you're probably out of luck.

raybeckerman said...

ok i got the letter