RPG Film shutdown

[Pnikosis]

I'm shocked...
The Machinima Page RPG Films has been shutdown by the RIAA. The reason seems to be for using copyrighted songs on their movies.
Saw it on Boing Boing (http://www.boingboing.net/2005/07/26/riaa_shuts_down_mach.html).

http://www.rpgfilms.net/

[Player 1]

http://sop.miskie.net/FILES/GALLERY/content/Funny/General/riaaswat.jpg

Oh for crying out loud.

You don't see the games companies shutting the site down because of the use of their games/likeness/engines/technology being used creatively and positively.

RIAA really doesn't like having it's monopoly on manufactured 'entertainment' threatened does it?

Right, I'm off to suck alt.binaries.mp3.0day dry. Who's with me?

[Kefkataran]

That's... pretty ridiculous.

[balamoor]

Beyond fucked up is more like it. I heard they have given the same treatment to worldofwarcraftmovies.com I have a buddy from Seoul and he is always telling me just how different things are in South Korea, Hell if you add a Korean groups Music to a gaming film it is considered a great honor. The U.S. is becoming more restrictive, and more Orwellian every day.

[Sazime]

Watch out folks, City of Heroes and Cryptic will be next at this rate. Or anyone else who has contests that involve liscensed music. Man, if I ever have any create property out there, you better believe fair use will be mandatory on any contract I sign. I hope someone with some money is fighting these things....

[balamoor]

Watch out folks, City of Heroes and Cryptic will be next at this rate. Or anyone else who has contests that involve liscensed music. Man, if I ever have any create property out there, you better believe fair use will be mandatory on any contract I sign. I hope someone with some money is fighting these things....


That's the whole problem Sazime, and it lends itself more to the fucked-up-ness of the situation. It would take someone with a great deal of money to fight it thanks in part to the litigation reform that has been weaseled under the peoples nose over the past Ten years. Unless you are an independently wealthy philanthropist or a organization backed by said all you can do is scream foul which these days is about as useful as Tits on a Bull.

And it will probably get worse from here.

[XxSATANxX]

Okay I did a vid wrote an e-mail to the puplisher and the band and got okay'd to use the sound track. I do purchase music online all the time. 10 cents per song. God I love Russia!

[Librum]

If it's not legal to freely distribute a song you don't own the distribution rights to, how is it legal to freely distribute a song you don't own with a video attached to it?

I hear lots of 'man that sucks!' on here, but what should they be doing? Do you really advocate fair use to mean any use?

[MrMeatshake]

all your machinima are belong to RIAA.

[MrMeatshake]

Yes, my english sucks (badly). If you noticed that already, you can help me correcting the sentence.

Yes, my english sucks (badly). If you noticed that already, you can help me by correcting the sentence.

[Paltry]

Anyone up for a revolution

I know us folk have it in us

The hours and hours we've all spent playing fps's will finally come in handy

http://www.1stnewmarket.org/joinTheRevolution.jpg

[superherotaco]

I hate to say it, but it does make sense. People have to pay large fee's to put music in motion pictures. And it's not as if the RIAA is stoping videos from being made, just stopping the music, that they didn't make, or pay for rights to, or obtain permission to use.

Look at it this way. A big Electronic Arts game starts taking videos from Homestar Runner, or another small privately run website, and puts them into the TV's or loading screens of their game. Now Homestar Runner tries to sue EA because they wern't paid, asked, nor even informed that their videos were being used like this. Obviously EA would seem like the bad guys here.

It mostly boils down to an issue of spite for big business, rather than a rights issue.

[Pnikosis]

Yes, my english sucks (badly). If you noticed that already, you can help me by correcting the sentence.

Thanks a lot!

[Paltry]

ahhh there we go... took me longer to figure out how to put up a picture than it should have

[MrMeatshake]

Look at it this way. A big Electronic Arts game starts taking videos from Homestar Runner, or another small privately run website, and puts them into the TV's or loading screens of their game. Now Homestar Runner tries to sue EA because they wern't paid, asked, nor even informed that their videos were being used like this. Obviously EA would seem like the bad guys here.

i kindof agree, but the point here is that you wouldn't expect big businesses to behave this way - and if they did, they should be punished. however, machinima is just the latest in a series of ways that people have always come up with to personalise and redistribute media to small audiences. as lots of people will tell you, it all starts with the mix-tape. i know a lot of people seem to think that banning the mix-tape is a good idea, but is it really worth the effort and ill-will that enforcing these rules in ALL cases will generate?

eg. one guy makes, maybe 2 copies of his favourite mix-tape for his best friend and his girlfriend, who is he really hurting? the artists who might get more sales of thier albums because his friends have heard these new tracks? and yes, anyone can download these movies, but realisticially, what is the audience of these videos? one hundred people? a thousand? it's so insignificant.

oh, and blam! (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/27/p2p_users_legal_downloads/) talk about biting the hand that feeds!

[Paltry]

Do these people make money from their movies? Cause if not the RIAA can jam it, if they do then RPG films can cry me a fucking river.

still

TO ARMS MY FREINDS THE REVOLUTION IS NEAR

[NACIONAL]

I don't know a lot about RPG films, and i just want to know something..

do they sell their movies???, or they just put them to everyone for download... because if they are selling them, RIAA did right, but if they only distribute a creative movie made just for fun... well that really sucks, and RIAA can rott in hell.

[Paltry]

i dont mean just selling

if theyre making money off of add space on theyre website im guessing that counts too

[Kefkataran]

Look at it this way. A big Electronic Arts game starts taking videos from Homestar Runner, or another small privately run website, and puts them into the TV's or loading screens of their game. Now Homestar Runner tries to sue EA because they wern't paid, asked, nor even informed that their videos were being used like this. Obviously EA would seem like the bad guys here.

Except people aren't making money off machinima. At least no one I know. Even as far as ad space on a website, where that's viable (which probably isn't that much of the time), I'm sure they're making maybe enough to pay off server costs at most.

[Paltry]

still i think thats enough to allow the riaa to loose the dogs

[Kefkataran]

Obviously it's enough, since they did, but it doesn't seem very warranted or worthwhile.

[Royal Fool]

This is totally ridiculous.

Yes, the RIAA has the right to do this, and it is legitimately only protecting its members with this 'cease and desist' action. It's copyrighted, and the law says that copyrighted content must be licensed or otherwise be specially permitted by the copyright holder.

BUT COME ON! These are some guys doing machinima videos for fun, and they even picked their favorite songs to sync them to! Doesn't that at least show that they are paying respects to the artists that made the songs? I would fucking think so! This isn't fucking piracy; nobody is gonna bother with ripping the music from those video files (Probably dubious quality anyway) and transfer them to their iPod or put them in their PC playlist. Let's be realistic, there is absolutely nobody, NOBODY losing money on this. The machinima guys were just showing their love for the bands with this.

Fucking RIAA.

Soon people won't be allowed to sing their favorite songs at work or home, because the RIAA squad will kick down the doors and arrest them.

And garage bands won't be allowed to play songs by their favourite bands either, because the RIAA will sue them and take all their equipment.

And you better not be practicing on a musical instrument - if you so much as dare to play a few notes from a song you like, the RIAA will come and rape your music teacher for advocating piracy and throw you in jail. And kill your dog, too.

[01010]

The music industry has failed to adapt and is dying. They like to make it feel like without the industry there is no music, but there was music before and there will be music after. Everything is in transition at the moment and the RIAA is the face of resistance to change. You can't fight change.

[MrMeatshake]

royal fool and 01010, agreed and agreed.

check out these (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/02/01/free_legal_downloads/) links (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/02/01/free_legal_downloads/) to avoid the RIAA FUD, and for info about the reg's suggested solutions ;) ...

[mister_slim]

Yet another reason to unfuck copyright law, or at least use Creative Commons to allow non-commercial work.

[bobbler]

Usually things like putting music in something for non profit (in any way) or using pictures/screenshots falls under the "fair use" rules and companies don't complain much (as far as I understand that is).

The RIAA is nuts -- they are just being greedy. The money they are going after would never go the hands of any of the people actually making the music anyways.

[superherotaco]

Though you have to protect the rights of the artist too. What if they don't want their music attached to a specific cause no matter how much they're paid. Even if the company is non-for-profit, or even taking a loss because they love their cause, attaching the song to their cause without permission shouldn't be allowed. Like a "smack my bitch up" song over a violent henti cartoon scene. Even if the creators are losing money on making and distributing it, and making no money from it, do you think that Prodigy really wants their song attached to animated rape?

I mean this is an extreme example, but in defining laws and defending rights, you have to take extreme cases into account, and work from there.

[01010]

You obviously haven't seen the video for "Smack my bitch up" have you?

If the artist doesn't want their music used in that way then they shouldn't be making music to be released into the public domain because that's what will happen. As far as I am concerned music comes from another place, every song that will be written will be written regardless of the artist, the artist is just a channel. Once music is released it is everybodys to share. If you create music and you don't like that then you aren't making music for the right reasons.

[Adewade]

01010 - Yeah, thank goodness we don't live in a society where money is required to purchase goods and services.

[superherotaco]

You obviously haven't seen the video for "Smack my bitch up" have you?

If the artist doesn't want their music used in that way then they shouldn't be making music to be released into the public domain because that's what will happen. As far as I am concerned music comes from another place, every song that will be written will be written regardless of the artist, the artist is just a channel. Once music is released it is everybodys to share. If you create music and you don't like that then you aren't making music for the right reasons.

Well you caught me there, lets use that Matchbox 20 song about wanting to "push you around" as an example. You know, it could be anything.

Over all it is a bummer that the artists didn't release the music to these people who are doing a great thing for their sub-culture. And while your view on music being out there and free is nice, a lot of people feel the same way about a program once it's been written. And working in a company that spent 3 months developing a programming a system for a client, and having them take it claiming it was public domain showed me how it's ok to ignore digital laws, until it happens to you.

[falak]

Apparently it was a forgery (http://www.boingboing.net/2005/07/27/riaa_we_didnt_take_d.html).

[Zeal]

They'll never be able to stop illegal downloads of any kind, ever. The pirates are always one step ahead of the industry. They are the cutting-edge.

[Kefkataran]

Apparently it was a forgery.

This is probably worthy of a news post.

[falak]

This is probably worthy of a news post.Well, you know what to do! :p

So I'm lazy. What?

[Kefkataran]

I feel like I make too many news posts. What if EA secretly harbors hatred towards me?

[falak]

I feel like I make too many news posts. What if EA secretly harbors hatred towards me?But I'll only fuck it up, and the first five posts will read "spelling mistake, mang!" and I'll say "Oh noes! Fix please, mods!" It'll only go downhill from there. Before you know it we'll be arguing over religion and robots. It will be a metaphorical trainwreck. The crushing weight of failure can only lead to my suicide. So in conclusion, you should probably do it.

[Kefkataran]

But I'll only fuck it up, and the first five posts will read "spelling mistake, mang!" and I'll say "Oh noes! Fix please, mods!" It'll only go downhill from there. Before you know it we'll be arguing over religion and robots. It will be a metaphorical trainwreck. The crushing weight of failure can only lead to my suicide. So in conclusion, you should probably do it.

Nomination two for post of the year.

And I submitted it.

[01010]

Personally I do make music, nothing good enough for release though. I'm more than prepared to release it for free when the time comes that it is good enough, I'll put my money where my mouth is. :)

The fact is most artists make a pittance on record sales, the money they make comes through touring and merchandise. The only problem with free distribution would be the initial outlay for making merch, and marketing. But if you are a good band then word of mouth will get you out there anyway.

I'm certainly not a communist, I just think that the finer examples of human achievement (music, artworks, architecture) should be for everyone.