Jello Biafra, the former Dead Kennedys lead singer, recently had a few choice words for the RIAA, going as far as to say that the group reminds him of the mafia.
“I have two different opinions on file-sharing,” says Biafra, “you may take from the big labels…because the only thing they do is steal from both the artists and the audience.”
Besides calling the big labels the “bad guys”, he placed the “small guys” on the “good side.” “Don’t take from the smaller, independent labels. Then fantastic bands would have to surrender way too early, because they can’t afford it,” he says.
“Support the independent labels, but the big ones –****’em. Anyways, I haven’t found anything in many years which come from a large label worth buying” adds Biafra.
Moving on to the RIAA, Biafra gets even angrier.
“The RIAA reminds me most of the Godfather,” Biafra says, actually going into a Marlon Brando impression, “we will sue you. If you want out of this without going to court, we can make an arrangement: Give us $5000. If not, you will find a horses head in your bed.”
“They are doing this to 12 year old girls, they are doing it to 80 year old women, and they do it to students. There are plenty of examples that show people having to quit school because they had to give all their money to the recording industry instead,” he finally notes.
There are many of us who agree with these statements, especially knowing how little these lawsuits have done to stop overall piracy. The model has changed, but the record industry has not adapted as quickly as they should have.
Result for: into
Microsoft has announced that will stop producing its HD DVD player add-on for the Xbox 360, citing Toshiba’s end of support for the format as the key reason why.
The company said it would continue to provide warranty support for the 300,000 or so players that had been purchased to date.
“HD DVD is one of the several ways we offer a High Definition experience to consumers and we will continue to give consumers the choice to enjoy digital distribution of high definition movies and TV shows directly to their living room, along with playback of the DVD movies they already own,” added Blair Westlake, a VP of Microsoft’s media and entertainment group.
Microsoft was the second largest backer of the format behind Toshiba, and has said it will continue to look into how HD DVD technology, such as the interactive layer HDi, can be applied to other platforms.
Result for: into
Dreamworks Studios has announced that they are still “locked” into an exclusivity deal with Toshiba to distribute their movies on HD DVD only and would continue to do so until Toshiba tells them differently.
“We have a partnership with Toshiba and have an obligation to see this through,” DreamWorks Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg said.
“As you know, we have been well-compensated for our support. It really is in their court at this point to really declare what the next step will be. We’re poised either way to jump into the marketplace when the conditions are right to do so,” he added.
Katzenberg’s comments seem to imply that all the past rumors were indeed correct and Dreamworks and Paramount were paid over $150 million USD to go HD DVD-exclusive for 18 months. It seems however that Paramount had a different clause in there contract because they recently dropped HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray.
