How Music Got Free (29 page)

Thomas appealed the ruling
The case of
Virgin Records America, Inc. v. Thomas-Rasset
is endless. The judge in the first trial vacated the first ruling
of $222,000 in damages and ordered a retrial. Thomas was found guilty again at the second trial, and the jury ordered her to pay an astonishing $1.92 million for pirating 24 songs. The same judge called this amount “monstrous and shocking” and reduced damages to $54,000. Thomas refused to pay, and appealed. A third trial was held to determine damages. The jury in that trial ordered Thomas to pay $1.5 million. The amount was again reduced to $54,000, which Thomas again refused to pay. She appealed to a higher court, which then reinstated the
original
damages from the first trial of $222,000. Thomas then appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, which rejected her petition.

the music industry’s sacrificial martyr
See Nick Pinto, “Jammie Thomas-Rasset: The Download Martyr,”
Minneapolis City Pages
, February 16,
2011.

“There’s no one in the record company that’s a technologist
 . . .”
Seth Mnookin, “Universal’s CEO Once Called iPod Users Thieves. Now He’s Giving Songs Away,”
Wired
, November 2007.

“World’s Stupidest Recording Executive”
This was later softened to “Is Universal’s Doug Morris the Stupidest Recording Exec Ever?,” Mary Jane Irwin,
Gawker
, November 27, 2007.

Jackson
 . . . rights to the majority of the Beatles catalog
For a longer discussion, see Stephen Gandel, “Michael Jackson’s Estate: Saved by the Beatles,”
Time
, July 1, 2009.

over the remaining million dollars, they would flip a coin
Carter offers his own take on this event in the lyrics to the song “Run This Town.”

CHAPTER 19

What.cd’s music archive grew to surpass even Oink at its peak
It also became a trophy case for the holy grails of online piracy. J. D. Salinger’s leaked “The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls” was first posted there, as were high-resolution full-color scans of all 2,438 pages of Nathan Myrvhold’s 52-pound cookbook,
Modernist Cuisine
.

“A place called Linux?”
Trial transcript. Alan Ellis and Matthew Wyatt proceedings, January 13, 2010.

He later served a two-year sentence
Svartholm Warg’s legal troubles are ongoing. Unrelated to his work with the Pirate Bay, he faces criminal
charges in both Sweden and Denmark for hacking into government and commercial databases. He was found guilty at trial in Denmark in October 2014 and sentenced to three years in prison.

“It is impossible to enforce the ban against non-commercial file sharing
 . . .”
Christian Engström and Rick Falkvinge,
The Case for Copyright Reform
(Creative Commons, 2012), 1.

two Pirates would take seats at the table of the European Union
Neither would win reelection. Currently there is one Pirate in the EU parliament: Julia Reda, representing Germany.

their original 14-year terms
The U.S. Copyright Act of 1790 provided 14 years of protection, with the option to renew the copyright for an additional 14 years if the author was still alive. It was patterned after the similar UK Statute of Anne, passed in 1710.

protections that could last for hundreds of years
The relevant piece of U.S. legislation is 1998’s Copyright Term Extension Act, also known as the Sonny Bono Act, after its author, or the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, after its primary beneficiary. The legislation extended the terms of copyright to seventy years after the death of the creator and offered even greater protections for works of corporate authorship. It passed with broad bipartisan support.

“Negative rates are a function of global abundance
 . . .”
Izabella Kaminska, “Counterintuitive Insights That Are Only Now Making the Mainstream Now [
sic
],”
FT Alphaville
, April 26, 2013.

only in one other country
 . . . did the Pirates gain a foothold
In 2013, the Pirates won three seats in Iceland’s national parliament. In 2014, a Pirate was elected the mayor of a small town in the Czech Republic.

CHAPTER 20

The contact’s name was listed only as “D”
Glover’s IP address was also stored in the phone.

Chow had his own lawyers
 . . . George Murphy and Terry Yates
Murphy would later call this his favorite case of all time. “It was an ass-kicking from the first minute.”

He performed poorly
Specifically, Glover claimed to have spoken briefly with Cassim at their pretrial arraignment in Virginia. Rivera challenged
this assertion, claiming that he had been standing next to Cassim the entire time and that no such conversation had occurred.

the FBI did not present recordings of Cassim’s voice as evidence
It is unclear if such recordings existed. Glover’s lawyer later told him that the FBI had wiretapped Glover’s cell phone, but the Department of Justice made no mention of this during the trial.

EPILOGUE

“near-military-scale planning”
Steven J. Horowitz, “Protecting the Throne,”
Billboard,
August 20, 2011.

Patrick Saunders
 . . . eventually got a job as a paralegal
He also paid a service called DeleteMe to remove all trace of himself from the Internet. I found him through a database used by skip tracers.

Simon Tai
 . . . was never charged with a crime
Having married a pastor’s daughter and converted to Christianity, Tai credited divine intervention.

soon found myself in a warehouse in Queens
Specifically Guardian Data Destruction in Long Island City. I give them my highest recommendation.

The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. To find the corresponding locations in the text of this digital version, please use the “search” function on your e-reader. Note that not all terms may be searchable.

Adar, Ricky, 56–57

Addleshaw Goddard (law firm), 212–14

Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), 60, 88

Apple support for, 133, 155

Fraunhofer development of, 60, 88

industrial applications for, 96–98

advertising revenue, 230–38

Affinity
(underground newsletter),
72–73, 269

Aftermath record label, 78, 109

album-oriented music, 198–99, 226–27

All Eyez on Me
(album), 77–78, 84

America Online (AOL)

Nullsoft purchase by, 128

Time Warner merger with, 122, 154–55

“America’s Dumbest Soldiers, ” 169

A&M Records vs. Napster,
121, 166–68

Apocalypse Production Crew piracy group, 180, 182, 193–96, 203, 249, 251

Apple

Jobs’ illness and, 236–37

licensing deals by, 261

mp3 and, 62, 132–33

offer to hire Morris, 154–57, 236–37

sales dominance of, 192–93

Universal Music bid by, 154–57

Atlantic Records, 39–41, 45, 50, 237

AT&T.
See also
Bell Labs

Advanced Audio Coding project and, 60

mp3 technology and, 16–17, 57–58, 60, 94, 96

audiobooks, 211–14

“Back That Azz Up” (song), 80–81

Barrett, Karen, 101–2, 142, 187, 223, 247

BearShare peer-to-peer network, 160, 165

Beatles, 120, 155, 234, 261

Bell Labs, 16–17, 96

Bennett, Bill, 49–50, 79–80, 119

Berns, Bert, 38–39, 199

Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), 57–58, 154, 159, 189

Big Five music conglomerates, 114, 159

“Big Pimpin’” (song), 113, 125

Big Six music conglomerates, 50–51, 57, 114

Big Tymers (rap group), 81, 177, 200

Billboard
charts, 43–44, 106–7, 190,
202, 262

BitTorrent, 166–70, 261.
See also
torrent technology

Black Entertainment Television, 178–79

The Blueprint
(album), 140, 260

The Blueprint 3
(album), 237–38

Bon Jovi (band), 68, 82, 84–85

bootlegged movies, Glover’s operation for, 146–51, 183–88

bootlegged music, 67–68, 71–74, 83–85, 148–51, 183–83.
See also
music piracy

Brandenburg, Karlheinz

Advanced Audio Coding project, 60, 88

Apple and, 132–34

Bell Labs research by, 16–17

compression algorithm developed by, 10–11, 13–16, 22–25

digital piracy opposed by, 89–90, 130–31, 155, 168

market expertise of, 96–98

meeting with RIAA, 89–92

mp3 development and, 5–6, 18–21,
53–57, 128

MPEG format war and, 18–19, 21–25

Ogg Vorbis and, 259

psychoacoustics research and, 9–12

public image of, 93–98, 127, 133–34

royalties from mp3 received by, 128–31

surround sound ventures of, 165

WinPlay3 development and, 60–63

Brandenburg Ventures, 132, 165

Bronfman, Edgar Miles Jr., 75–77, 82, 102, 116–18, 122–23, 155, 189, 196, 227

Buckles, Brad, 162, 202

cable television, prerelease leaks from, 185–86

“California Love” (song), 73, 77–78

camcorder in-theater bootlegging, 165, 185

Carey, Mariah, 176, 179

Carter, Shawn Corey.
See
Jay-Z

Cash Money Records, 80, 84–85, 103, 109, 113, 200–202

Cassim, Adil R., 262

arrest and trial of, 253–58

denial of RNS involvement by, 254–55

FBI investigation of, 248–50

Cassim, Bilkish, 251, 254

catalog orders, Morris’ tracking of, 43–44

chat rooms.
See also
Internet Relay
Chat (IRC)

evolution of, 70

music piracy and role of, 105–8, 180–88

Chess.net, 116–17

Chiariglione, Leonardo, 127, 274n

Chow, Matthew, 248, 251, 255–58, 262

Chronic
(album),
The
, 46, 48, 68, 77

Chronic 2001
(album), 124, 140

Church, Steve, 53–55, 61, 277n

Cohen, Bram, 166–68

College Dropout
(album),
The
, 153, 177

compact discs

bootlegging of, 67–68, 71–74, 83–85

impact in music industry of, 8–9, 48, 56–57, 79–80, 124–25, 154, 189–92, 225, 262

market collusion and, 114

Napster’s impact on, 124–25

prerelease leaks of, 144–45, 157–58, 176–77, 185–88

production process for, 28–29

shelf life of, 123–24

Compress ’Da Audio (CDA), 73, 105–6

compression technology

Brandenburg’s algorithm and, 10–11, 13–16, 22–25

Ogg Vorbis compression scheme,
132, 259

threat to recording industry of, 85

Congress, recording industry and, 119–21

conspiracy laws, 193–203, 251–58

copyright law

audiobook piracy and, 212–14

Brandenburg’s support for, 89–90

Fraunhofer’s support for, 89–90

mp3 technology and, 59, 94–96, 111, 165

music industry attitudes concerning, 56–58

Napster and infringement of, 114–21

peer-to-peer file-sharing and, 121–22

Pirate Party protests against, 243–45

Project Hubcap lawsuit and, 158–61

torrent tracking and, 240–43

Copyright Term Extension Act, 287n

cost per thousand impressions (CPM), 232–38

Cracked Rear View
(album), 42, 45

crime triangle theory, 103–5

Curtis
(album), 221–22

Death Row Records, 46–50, 78, 109

Def Jam Recordings/Def Jam South, 112–13, 148–49, 153

Diamond Multimedia Systems, 93, 121, 165

digital audio research.
See
psychoacoustic compression

digital jukebox.
See
streaming of music

digital piracy

evolution of, 1–4, 71–73

impact on recording industry of, 83–85, 124–25, 139–40, 154, 189–203

law enforcement crackdown on, 193–203

mp3 and growth of, 95–98

peer-to-peer file-sharing and, 114–16

Scene community involvement in, 72–73

torrent technology and, 168–70

Dockery, James Anthony (Tony)

chat room participation by, 70–71, 250

dismissal from PolyGram, 247

Glover and, 34, 74, 100–101, 142, 148–50

as “Jah Jah,” “StJames, ” 70

movie bootlegging by, 147, 184

music piracy activities of, 105–9, 142, 145, 176, 216, 220

at PolyGram Kings Mountain plant, 27–30, 102

trial and imprisonment of, 253, 262

Dolby systems, Advanced Audio Coding project and, 60

Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory
(album),
The
, 78–79

Drake, Nick, 205–6

Drama, DJ, 201–3

Dre, Dr. (artist), 46, 48, 73–74, 77–78, 103, 124, 140, 153

Duke University, music piracy at, 149–50

DuPont corporation, 76, 82

DVD technology, 22, 146–51, 165, 183–88

Eberlein, Ernst, 13, 88

EGO music piracy group, 176, 179

Elektra Records, 42, 202

Ellis, Alan, 170–74, 205–14, 239–43, 262–63

Eminem, 103, 124, 140, 153, 182, 184, 197, 201

Eminem Show
(album),
The
, 140–41, 153

EMI recording company, 154, 159, 189, 260

Encore
(album), 182, 184

Entertainment Distribution Company (EDC), 191–92, 215, 221, 253

Ertegun, Ahmet, 39–42, 46, 48, 191, 199, 278n

European Parliament, 243–45

Fanning, John, 116, 119

Fanning, Shawn, 114, 116–19, 132

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

crackdown on digital piracy by, 193–203

surveillance of the Scene by, 147–48, 162, 203, 217, 226

50 Cent (artist), 144, 153, 177, 197, 220–22, 230

file-sharing subculture.
See also
peer-to-peer file-sharing

Fraunhofer’s opposition to, 89–90, 130–31

growth of, 71, 95–98, 133

Napster and, 114–18

Oink’s Pink Palace and, 210–14

threat to recording industry of, 193–203

filter bank technology, 9–10, 19–21, 55, 94

“First” (song), 197–98

“Fish” (RNS participant), 180–88, 220

Fix
(album),
The
, 149–50, 158, 175–76

Flash codec multimedia system, 87

Frankel, Justin, 95, 128

Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology, 132, 259

Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits

Advanced Audio Coding project and, 60, 88

break in at, 22

commercial success of mp3 and, 87, 93–98, 128

format war with Philips and, 21–25, 128

L3Enc device and, 55–56

mp3 development and, 12, 15, 53–60

MPEG format war and, 18–20, 128

music piracy opposed by, 89–90

psychoacoustic compression and, 12, 15–18, 56

recording industry relations with, 57–58, 89–92

royalties from mp3 received by, 128–31

WinPlay3 development and, 60–62

Fry, Stephen, 211, 240

Fuchs, Michael, 42, 46, 50–51, 76–77, 278n

gaming software, piracy of, 108, 186

gangsta rap.
See
rap music

Geller, Harvey, 121, 158–61

Gerhäuser, Heinz, 13, 88, 132

Germany, patent protection in, 95–96

Get Rich or Die Tryin’
(album), 153, 177,
199, 216

“Gin and Juice” (song), 50–51

Glover, Bennie Lydell (Dell)

as ADEG, 70–71, 145, 183, 251

albums released by, 103, 108–9, 135–41, 149, 158, 176–79, 184–85. 220–222, 226–27

bootlegging activities of, 67–68, 99–101, 175–76, 219–22

chat room presence of, 70–71

Dockery and, 34, 74, 100–101, 142, 148–50

dog breeding business of, 68–69, 100

dominance as leak source, 176–88, 211, 250–52

employment and termination at PolyGram plant, 27–33, 65, 247

FBI investigation of, 222–23, 226, 240, 247–52

indictment and trial of, 253–58

Kali’s association with, 108–9, 139–42, 145–46, 148–51, 215–22

KOSDK (music piracy leader) and, 181–88

lifestyle of, 34–35, 101, 187–88, 216–18

movie bootlegging by, 146–51, 183–88

post-prison life for, 263–64

relationship with Karen Barrett, 101–3, 142, 218

RNS, association with, 106–7, 142, 150–51, 176–79, 217–20

Scene rules violated by, 183–88

sleep apnea of, 31, 101

smuggling at PolyGram plant by, 135–40, 219–22

technology skills of, 30–31, 65–68, 176, 264

testimony against Cassim, 254–58

vehicle purchases of, 33–35, 65–66, 187–88, 218–22

work ethic of, 34–35, 101, 187–88, 216–18

Glover, Markyce, 99–100, 102

Gnutella peer-to-peer network, 160, 165

Graduation
(album), 221–22, 248–49

Grainge, Lucian, 229, 260

Greenspan, Alan, 83–84, 111, 113, 243

Grill, Bernhard

Advanced Audio Coding project and, 88, 128

German Future Prize awarded to, 131

L3Enc development and, 55–56, 62–63

mp3 promotion and, 53–54, 59, 94–95, 97–98, 130–31, 134, 168

MPEG format wars and, 20–21, 23–25

psychoacoustic compression research and, 12–16, 19

WinPlay3 development and, 60–63, 95

Hanson (band), 82, 84

Harry Potter
franchise, 211–14

Herre, Jürgen, 13, 59, 88

Hootie & the Blowfish, 42–45, 276n

Horowitz, Zach, 158–61, 231

Huckfeldt, Bruce, 194–96, 262

Huffman coding, 11, 16

“In Da Club” (song), 153, 199, 230

intellectual property law.
See
copyright law

International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI),
213–14, 217

Internet Relay Chat (IRC), 70–71, 105–6, 114, 130, 166, 182.
See also
chat rooms

Interpol, 147–48, 213, 217

Interscope Records, 45–50, 73, 77–80, 112–13, 153, 189

Iovine, Jimmy, 45–48, 76–80, 92, 112, 191

IP addresses

limits on for Scene members, 160–61, 180

traceability of, 70–71, 160–61, 250–52

iPod device, 155–57, 192–93, 202

iTunes Store, 132–33, 155–58, 189, 192, 205–6, 209, 235–36

Jackson, Michael, 84, 234

Japanese electronics industry, 93, 97,
127, 144

Jay-Z (artist), 103, 112–13, 125, 140, 177, 179, 201, 237–38, 260

Jobs, Steve, 132–33, 155–57, 189, 192–93, 227–28, 235–37

Johnston, James, 16–17, 20–21, 60, 96, 274n

Juvenile (artist), 80–81, 200

“Kali” (RNS ringleader)

as“Blazini,” “Death, ” 181

Glover’s association with, 108–9, 139–42, 145–46, 148–51, 215–22

law enforcement investigation of, 195–203, 248–52

leadership of RNS by, 106–8, 180–88, 217–20

paranoia of, 147, 217

post-RNS activities of, 251, 262

Saunders’ association with, 179

shutdown of RNS by, 218–22, 249–52

Tai’s association with, 143–45

Kaminska, Izabella, 244–45

Kazaa peer-to-peer network, 160, 165, 209, 225, 252

Knight, Suge, 46–50, 78, 81

KOSDK (RNS participant), 181–88, 220

Laurie Records, 38, 43–44, 199

Led Zeppelin (band), 39–41, 124, 199, 261

Level 3 encoder (L3Enc), 55–56, 62–63, 72–73, 88–89, 91

Lévy, Jean-Bernard, 155, 190

licensing agreements

mp3 technology and, 56–58, 90–91, 94, 128–29

music publishing business and, 234

for streaming media, 261

Lil Wayne, 81, 140, 154, 179, 200–202, 226

LimeWire peer-to-peer network, 160, 165, 171, 184, 252

Limp Bizkit, 79, 112, 123

Linde, Henri, 57–63, 93–94, 96, 127–29, 133

“Little Bit O’ Soul” (song), 43–44

Ludacris (artist), 140, 143–44, 148–49,
153, 177