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1:18:00 PM EDT
Hearing Getting Into Something -- Alison Moyet
Duh
I kvetched about the RIAA a few days ago regarding its ridiculous amnesty deal, but I missed the wave of angst and disgust that followed the news that the RIAA made a 12-year-old girl pay $2,000 for downloading songs. I'm not an RIAA public relations professional, but I'm guessing that if I could choose one person to extract thousands of dollars from, it probably wouldn't be a 12-year old girl, living in public housing, with a single mom, who downloaded songs like "If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands." I mean, I suppose it is possible to look more like a heartless, money-grubbing gang of puppy-kickers, but I'm hard-pressed to see how.
And in a nice touch, a lobbying group for file-sharing software companies has offered to pay the $2,000 -- so the companies that allow rampant song thievery look sweet and reasonable. The RIAA couldn't have botched the public relations aspect of this any more if it tried. Of course, that's what I felt about that amnesty thing, and look how I now stand corrected.
Some people think the solution is to boycott the RIAA and all the labels which support it, but I'm not much for that because (irony of ironies) I don't want the artists who happen to be with RIAA-affliliated labels to suffer for dumb moves they wouldn't endorse, and also because (as I've noted before) fundamentally the RIAA is right: Stealing music is a problem that has to be stopped for the sake of the musicians, if no one else.
But, Jeez. Let's get a collection together and buy the RIAA a clue. Seizure-laden lemurs could do a better job making the RIAA's case than it has.
Also: Penny Arcade cartoon on the matter. I'm a-bustin' up, here.
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The bottom line here is this (to me anyway): if the RIAA and every artist in that agency goes under, people are still goint to create and find ways to sell music. If it takes the fall of the RIAA in order to make everyone else learn that $.79 is a good deal for a downloaded (as well as traditionally printed) song, so be it. This is capitalism/darwinism at its best. Or worse, if you're the RIAA.
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If the RIAA has to go out of business to learn this lesson, so be it. This is the dynamic that is the free-market business. Either adapt or become extinct. Sure, I feel sorry for the artists, but hey, if I was an RIAA artist right now, I'd be doing everything in my power to lose the RIAA contract.
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I'm of a just slightly different mindset on this. While I don't endorse illegal activities, file sharing just isn't going to go away. Like it or not, the RIAA is going to have to deal with it on one level or another, and suing the people who didn't buy their client's music isn't the answer (obviously we agree on this). (Posting in 3 parts due to 500 character limit).
9/15/03 9:35 AM
>puppy-kickers, but I'm hard-pressed to see how.
Step 1. Go out and kick some actual puppies.
Step 2. Video tape it all.
Step 3. Release clips thereof on Kazzaa and co, renamed to look like music videos.
Extra Credit on Step 1: Find a baby to steal candy from, make it a point to explain you're doing it because you hold rights to his or her favorite nursery rhyme.
Tadaaaaa.