Remember when the recording industry (called the RIAA) went after people who downloaded and shared free music off the Internet? They are still doing it and making people pay thousands of dollars in restitution.
About five years ago, I downloaded - for free - a whole bunch of songs by using Kazaa. That was right around the time the RIAA started cracking down, and I then dumped Kazaa off my computer. Now, the RIAA is widening its net. Incredibly, they are going after a guy who burned songs from his purchased CDs to his computer. If that "crime" is something that can get you in trouble, then half our country's population is up the creek. I can only guess, but I would say that I have ripped at least a thousand songs from my CDs and stored them on my computer hard drive, and transferred many of those songs to my MP3 player. There you go, RIAA! I have now confessed - come and get me!
The movie industry tried something similar when VCR tapes made their appearance in the late 1970s. You can see that worked out really well for them. I'm sure the RIAA will have similar luck with their court proceedings regarding this CD case. These suits in the RIAA are textbook examples of corporate inertia. They have been riding the gravy train for so long, they don't know what to do when their business model doesn't work anymore. Their current strategy of trying to hold up progress with music-sharing technology is like trying to hold back a flood with a bucket and a spoon.
Now if you'll excuse me, I think I will go rip a few more songs from my CDs. Just think of it as my own little act of civil disobedience. How about all you tech-savvy fellow readers out there do the same thing in solidarity with me?
Good Day to You, Sir
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." --Thomas Jefferson
1 comment:
Good call on this one! I am an over 30 veteran of the music bizz and ever since the creative people were tossed out years ago and the industry taken over by moron lawyers and moron number crunchers it has been all down hill. Want more proof of how moron lawyers can screw things up?
See Congress!!!!!
What drives the music downloads with kids is the still too-high prices for CDs at stores! They cost less than albums used to and they charge much more for them. The prices for CDs should have been dropped years ago.
But it is too late for the bizz - the horse is so far out of the barn that it is about two states over by now. They will never get it back.
Hey music bizz idiots - you have made your bed. Now lie in it!
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