Brill!

*hums* "we're not gonna take it..."

the delish irony is of course that the youngsters in the ad are shilling Pepsi to pay the RIAA and courtcosts.

Just wanted to add that downloading music without paying, is copyright infringement, so yeah you're liable to be sued.

another spoof, a double 1984-itunes whammy.

FUD = Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt

Groklaw.net notes that even one of the judges dealing with the RIAA asks them to tone down the language.

"Let me say what I think your problem is. You can use these harsh terms, but you are dealing with something new, and the question is, does the statutory monopoly that Congress has given you reach out to that something new. And that's a very debatable question. You don't solve it by calling it 'theft.' You have to show why this court should extend a statutory monopoly to cover the new thing. That's your problem. Address that if you would. And curtail the use of abusive language."

There is a huge bunch of comments and plenty of links at Groklaw for those interested.

... What happened to the good old fashioned word "bootlegging", to describe the action of copying films etc, and then selling bootleg videos and concert recordings? Or does that still get to be called that? I thought these days it was "DVD-pirating" etc.
Regardless, I can't equate the act of downloading a minute or few of music to the same level of bootlegging or piracy that major open-air markets display, where thousands of pirated DVDs and full Cd's are on sale for cheap. It perplexes me that the RIAA doesn't go after those guys first, and instead attacks youngsters who in all likelihood use the networks like I do, to recommend music to your friends, and to 'give it a listen' to see if you can be bothered buying the CD. The quality of the mp3's are not as good as any storebought CD - unfortunately for the RIAA, they produce a lot of crap Cd's, with one good pop-tart single, and the rest is droned repeating. Also, the invention of the CD that was literally forced upon us, effectively killed the single - talk about shooting themselves in the foot. When they can't make their business make sense, they call lawyers instead of figuring out what they can do to un-alienate the consumers they have been pissing off for years. I'd love to be their market strategy adviser - we wouldn't have been in this hellhole.