RIAA File Sharing Lawsuits Set To Start
from the here-it-comes... dept
No surprise here, considering the extraordinary number of subpoenas the RIAA filed, but now they're getting ready to take all that info they've gathered and file real lawsuits, the first of which may be filed before the end of this week. Interestingly, the article points out that while usage on file sharing networks has gone down since the subpoenas started going out - so has CD sales. Of course, that doesn't mean anyone in the RIAA will have it occur to them that maybe (just maybe) things like Kazaa help promote artists. Meanwhile, over at LawMeme there's an interesting discussion on abusive subpoenas, suggesting that some may be able to effectively respond to the RIAA's subpoenas by saying they overstepped their legal bounds with them. Update: As is also being talked about everywhere, Universal says they've (finally?!?) noticed the writing on the wall and have decided to cut the price of their CDs. This is, of course, a too little too late move, but still, it's better than continuing to stubbornly ignore what the market is telling them.
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RIAA isn't in it for the artists.
Who said RIAA cared about the artists? I hate to break it to anyone who may still believe the RIAA's propaganda, but they don't. The RIAA cares about the RIAA, and its member organizations (the Recording Industry, which keeps artists bankrupt and prices of CDs unnaturally high.) Making music available through alternate streams, both legal and illegal, endangers the RIAA's business model, which is to charge artificially high prices on music and blames its customers for seeing through their stupidity and wanting better. If you believe RIAA is for the artists, why would they be suing and harassing artists for distributing their own music online over E-Bay and other free market systems?
I, for one, would love to see RIAA go out of business permanently, but I also know that someone else where be there to happily fill the power vaccuum. It will take both artists and customers deciding that they can do it themselves, without the corporate vampires who care only about their own profits and not about the artists they are "sworn to protect."
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Re: RIAA isn't in it for the artists.
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