Prince aint gangsta. Ryan is


http://www.pitchforkmedia...3/13.shtml

Feds Put the Screws to Ryan Adams Fans

Quanah Humphreys reports:
Music fans, beware: Do not mess with Ryan Adams or he will come down on you with the full-litigious force of the United States government. Or, more accurately, Universal Music Group ain't nothin' to fuck with.

A pair of Adams fans have been indicted by a federal grand jury for leaking tracks from Jacksonville City Nights to an Adams fan site last August, a month before the album's September release date. Now Robert Thomas of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Jared Bowser of Jacksonville, Florida each face up to 11 years in prison for violating the 2005 Family Entertainment and Copyright Act (FECA), according to the Associated Press and the Hollywood Reporter.

The pair are believed to be the first individuals prosecuted under the prerelease provision of FECA. By posting the tracks, Thomas and Bowser violated the section which states that media shall not be made "available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if such person knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial distribution." Adams' label, Lost Highway Records, is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, which, obviously, was intending Ryan's album for commercial distribution.

How this will affect sites which frequently post leaked tracks remains to be seen, as many see fair use in distributing media already available on the file-sharing black market. Will America's prisons be stuffed with MP3 bloggers?

Investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Section of the United States Attorney's Office, the intensity of the prosecution may seem awfully severe for a pair of fans not apparently interested in personal financial gain. But RIAA chairman and CEO Mitch Bainwol sees no shades of gray in his black and white assessment of the indictments.

"Prerelease piracy is a particularly damaging and onerous form of theft," Bainwol said. "It robs artists of the chance to sell their music before it even hits the streets or becomes legally available online."

Many studies, as well as many artists, dispute the deleterious effects of leaked tracks and music downloading, but the RIAA and US Attorney's office assessment is already demonstrated by Bainwol's additional comments. "The message here is clear: Significant crimes bring significant consequences."

Doesn't that sound like something a comic book villain would say?
[Edited 3/14/06 10:10am]

see this thread:

http://www.prince.org/msg/8/180798

endorphin74 said:

Sweeped Thanks for the heads up

Did everyone hear that correctly?

"facing up to 11 years in prison"

Why not get the person who leaked the tracks to the internet?
Well, that would make too much sense. Get the fans!

As ignorant as this sounds, I can't help it. WHO on earth is Ryan Adams????

okay, that seems a titch obscene

They won't spend a day in jail.....maybe.

Graycap23 said:

If they have a GOOD lawyer.

This kat is a good artist.. but he is an asshole..

even the artists who work with him have said this.

who the fuck is Ryan Adams?

wonder what prince thinks of this...

shouldn't the title read:

Ryan Adams former fans prosecuted by Feds

K well umm Universal and Prince need to get on somebody's ass that his cd is out 2 weeks before the 21st...

Dang...facing jail time for RYAN ADAMS.


Poor, poor misguided dudes.

ABeautifulOne said:

Hope you realize about 99% of new albums get leaked 2 weeks before orig. release date..

Sdldawn said:

As much as he sicks his lawyers on people I'm surprised he hasn't tooken some type of action even if most albums are out before the street dates...

ABeautifulOne said:

I would say its his record labels fault.. If they wanted reviewers and such to hear it and review it for promotion.. do what coldplay did.. sent their music out on an iPod with security there when they heard it and flew it to the next place..

hey, their album didnt get leaked until Japan actually sold in their stores..


it worked.

Sdldawn said:

That's a good plan but we all know that countries overseas don't take a lot of action against copyrights and piracy...