Nate Dogg wrote:Maybe the lawyers on the Board can clear things up, I can't quote any statutes.
I can clarify one thing, which I have noted before. Everyone should keep in mind the difference between making comments in a private coffee house conversation during an Exchange or even an ordinary night out, on the one hand, and posting comments on a bulletin board available to the public with "DJ" in the name and URL, on the other.
We all might discuss these issues in coffee houses and boldly espouse our half-baked, self-righteous views there, which is fine. The RIAA is not paying investigators to travel to and scour all after-hours coffee shops across the country for conversations on music sharing. However, they DO very likely pay investigators $20 an hour to sit in front of a computer screen and visit internet chat boards to find and go after the worst offenders as examples: and "DJs" are perhaps the best examples to be made of because they hoard and collect music more voraciously than "normal" people do and are "networked" well enough that one guy getting busted presumably has a chilling effect on hundreds of other rampant offenders. Especially "niche" DJs like us.
To measure the likelihood of the RIAA doing so, consider how much would we all "pay attention" if one of the prominent posters on this borad were nabbed by this very thread. The fact that it WOULD affect all of us if that happened makes it likely that it will happen. As such, I suggest that if you
have spent tens of thousands of dollars buying music
(as I have done, Mr. Senator), then it is fine to disclose that fact. But I would very cautiously avoid making any admissions that makes it easy for the RIAA to make an unfortunate example of you.
Or you could ignore my legal advice when I'm offering it for free and instead hire me to defend you when it happens.