The opinion stated above is certaintly what the record companies and the RIAA want you to think. In fact they say it so often that it must all be fact right? People are stealing.

Why is it then that only people who can’t afford a lawyer are sued? Seems suspicious to me. Not something a company that is just trying to protect their interest and investment would do. Surely if the ground they stood on was high and moral we would see some more diversity in who is sued. I mean this is a widespread epidemic right? So many people are stealing music it is causing the loss of jobs at companies. Makes sense right?

The RIAA is doing what is just. That is why they are recouping the losses to protect the artist. So the Artist get money from these lawsuits right?

Let me answer that one. No absolutely not. Only the record company gets money for the artist material being stolen. The artist does not even get their normal small cut.

Doesn’t that seem fishy?

But lets be fair we are talking about record companies they have always been fair….. Charging $14.95 or more for a CD was always a fair price right? Ever wonder how much it really cost to manufacture and market that cd?

Smells fishy again doesn’t it?

But wait let’s reel in the BIG FISH and this goes back to suing people who can’t afford to go to court. Ever check out the ruling in Dowling vs United States?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowling_v._United_States
“Copies of copyrighted works cannot be regarded as stolen property for the purposes of a prosecution under a statute criminalizing the interstate transportation of such property.”

That to me looks like a leg to stand on. Of course if you don’t want to take the time to fight it a quick out of court settlement seems much easier. Espcially when you are paying a minimum of 750 dollars a song. Those numbers add up quick and become scary.

Evidently the RIAA has some of legal issues to face in the state of Oregon where the Attorney General is actually questioning their practices of how they go about their lawsuits. Again this noble business seems to smell a little odd when you read this.
http://news.digitaltrends.com/news/story/14990/oregon_questions_riaa_legal_tactics

When you were a kid ever stay up on the weekend with your buddies with the radio on and a blank tape in it waiting for that new Guns N Roses song to come on so you could record it on your tape and play it back? I know i did. I know a lot of my friends who love music did.

I’m betting that the executives of these companies never did though.

From what they are saying we were all stealing back then and should be fined for doing it.

What about if you have a book and you want to let a friend borrow it because it was a good read. From what the RIAA says that is stealing too. Watch out I’m going to watching you all to see who is letting who borrow books to read.

Makes it seem kind of trivial doesn’t it? Kind of like waiting for the Pillow Police (what comedian called it that? can’t remember sorry) showing up at your house asking to inspect your pillow to make sure you did not rip off that little tag.

That is how I feel about the RIAA. Like they are the music’s version of the pillow police. No one ever thought they would show up and the idea that they are is absurd to me.

I support artist i like. Not only by purchasing their albums but by seeing them live and buying way overpriced concert t shirts.

Allow people to purchase music at a fair price and preview that music fairly and the problem goes away. People are frustrated at paying inflated prices and purchasing albums that have one good song on it.

For the record I did pick up the new Britney album and I’m going to have to redo my List post because that one is on the top!

Great points. I really liked the article you put the link to as well.

I think what i was trying to say with the last post is the RIAA would have you think that myth number 4 & 5 in that article are not myths. That if you download a song it is just like walking into a store and stealing the cd off the shelf. Clearly the 1985 case is grounds that copy write infringement is not the same as “stealing” something physically. They really go out of their way to create an atmosphere of fear and to target folks they feel can’t and won’t be able to do much about it. I have a lot of disdain towards them because of the way they choose to do things.

The part about myth 5 is great too. I think the record companies should be creative enough and nimble enough to turn this to their advantage. Lots of folks are getting exposed to music they would never come close to hearing about because of folks sharing files. Perhaps focusing money on that instead of a legal team that is trying to use fear on its consumers would be a better place to spend that money.

I’ll have to be honest and plead my ignorance on the amount a label puts into an album. I know it varies for each band. I’d have to do some research to try to find facts that counter what you are saying but it seems for the longest time companies were making a good profit on CD sales and that seemed to be the general consensus.

Artists do not own their own music but they do get paid for cd sales. I would have thought if the RIAA is the long hand of the record company to help them recoup some of that lost revenue of CD sales due to file sharing that they would get a cut of that money they get back. I would think that is fair but that is just me.

I like Itunes. I almost wish that you could pay a discounted price to have the digital files for a week. After that week you either choose to lose the files or pay the additional full amount to keep the music. I’m sure that would cause a DRM nightmare but i think that would be a fair practice.

Personally I would like to see the record companies go away and make way for more marketing based and less distribution based companies. Bands can distribute their own merch online and on tour. They would lean on these companies more for promotion instead of distribution. CD artwork is cool but if it could lessen the cost of the music i rather just download a FLAC file from the band’s site and pay them the money directly.