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RIAA sues Gilette
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| hardstyle |
Today, in a move that baffled legal and industry analysts, the RIAA filed a lawsuit against shaving giant Gillette for contributory copyright infringement. The question is, what do shaving and the RIAA have in common?
Gillette unveiled its new razor Thursday, a pulsing version of the popular Mach3 Turbo Shaver, called the M3Power, or M3P for short. The shaver uses batteries and merely creates a pleasing pulsing sensation which makes it un-neccessary to shave over the same part of the face twice every morning. The price tag is prohibitive, and even Gillette is not sure men will want something moving on their face, but that's the least of their worries.
Carey Sherman, president of the RIAA, appeared in federal court Friday morning to file papers against the Boston based Gillette, for using the letters M,3, and P in a sequence that looks strikingly similar to the file format name that has spurred recent legal battles. The suit, which contends that people will see or hear ads for the new razor and want to download, is the latest in a long line of lawsuits filed by the trade group in an effort to stem the tide of illegal downloads plaguing the industry.
In a prepared statement, Mitch Bainwol suggested that the RIAA would settle with Gillette if they changed the packaging and name to a more RIAA friendly one. Settlement amounts ranged from the thousands to the millions, depending on the number of illegal downloads that resulted from the unfortunate name of the razor. "If people hear on the radio that it's okay to get an M3P, they might get confused and start downloading. This would be bad for the music industry, and would definitely contribute to another rise in the number of downloads in the near future."
Another spokesperson, who asked to remain anonymous mentioned there were a lot of loopholes for Gillette if they chose to settle this issue out of court. An "Amnesty Deal" is being written that will allow Gillette to walk away with no fines etc, if they only follow a few simple steps. They would have to give all marketing materials to the RIAA (including cardboard store advertising materials), give up their claim to the name M3P and promise never EVER to say those letters in that way again. They must also give RIAA watchdogs addresses and phone numbers for the top fifteen presidents etc in the Gillette corporation. This would ostensibly be to ensure that no further problems occur.
Gillette was unavailable for comment, but industry insiders suggest that there will be no settlement. One person contacted even went so far as to suggest the RIAA should be made to change the name of the file format, since the new razor holds 62 US patents, and therefore is well protected from infringement of its own. "If anyone is guilty of infringment, it is the RIAA" he said. "Gillette has a patent on the name M3P now, so it must be illegal for the RIAA to use MP3. I'd expect a countersuit".
Only time will tell, but this latest lawsuit illustrates the low depths to which Mr. Sherman and Mr. Bainwol will go to secure the future of the music industry.
http://www.boycott-riaa.com/article/9921 |
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| Turbonium |
The bottom of the web page says this exactly:
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Disclaimer
Okay okay, total farce! don't anyone go selling gillette stock just yet. The M3P hit the market on Thursday, but the lawsuit was my idea.
:p |
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| whiskers |
| how about... we reencode stuff in OGGs and show RIAA the finger? |
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| hardstyle |
| You had to ruin the joke :( |
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| KilldaDJ |
| quote: | Originally posted by whiskers
how about... we reencode stuff in OGGs and show RIAA the finger? |
yes...now that is a idea and a half...got alot of reencoding to do though...gotta do 2900mp3s... |
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| b i n k u n |
| quote: | Originally posted by hardstyle
You had to ruin the joke :( |
, had me going. :p :p 'cept RIAA dun have rights to mp3, if anyone, it'd be the mpeg group who created mp3. |
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| tu_face |
the rights to the name MP3 would be owned by mr fraunhoffer (or however you spell it) i think, but then again it would not be the extension itself, just the mpeg encoding..
but yes it had me goin, as it is about as believable as the RIAA |
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| LoCa |
| cant believe i read all that and wasnt even surprised. :D |
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| smokeape |
Gillette should countersue and tell RIAA to change their name to RIP!
:D
{{{smoke}}} |
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| Turbonium |
| Yea well before I clicked the link I thought it was true to, just like you guys all said, the RIAA is anal like that. |
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