|
|
||||||||
|
Cool Mac Gear• iPod Video • iPod nano • iPod 1G-2G • iPod 3G • iPod 4G • iPod Mini • PowerBook-iBook • Garageband |
By Applelinks Senior Editor John H. Farr
The Recording Industry Association of America has announced its intention to sue "the heaviest users of popular 'peer to peer' services like Kazaa" for thousands of dollars in damages, according to Reuters. While there have already been several instances of confrontation in the courts (most notably a recent case in which several college students were sued), the RIAA has generally avoided suing individual users, though this now may change. Every time we comment on this, someone flames us defending the right of the recording industry and copyright holders to sue the pants off anyone caught "breaking the law." None of these flamers ever rolls through a stop sign, of course. We just don't think music CD sales are down because people grab songs for free off the Internet. That's the position of the RIAA and the supposed reason for threatening once again to lower the legal boom. We do think that every computer user who's ever burned a CD knows firsthand how cheap blank CDs are, however -- and at roughly $15 a pop, the profit margins on CDs have to be enormous. In other words, maybe music CD sales are down because customers are simply fed up with paying inflated prices for music. Your editor has bought maybe two music CDs during the last years for just that reason. That, and the fact that the Hollywood star-making machinery rarely ends up producing and promoting the kind of music we like to hear. The RIAA isn't making any friends here, especially in light of survey after survey that shows music downloaders buy more CDs than non-downloaders. Draconian digital copyright enforcement is madness and will lead nowhere except to ever-lower CD sales, period. We're all for making sure the creators of the music are handsomely compensated for their work. Whether that's the primary concern of groups like the RIAA is open to question, naturally. Something needs to be done, but is an industry association the best source for innovative solutions? People used to make tapes of favorite songs and give them to their friends without worrying about being sued. This natural human impulse to share the culture we all enjoy should be accomodated, not vilified.What we want to know is, are the singers, songwriters, and musicians truly being heard in all of this, and if not, why not? Maybe, just maybe, nobody really needs Hollywood in the first place ...
Page: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5
|
Cool Mac Gear• iPod 1G-2G • iPod 3G • iPod 4G • iPod Mini • PowerBook-iBook • Keyboard Skins • Garageband
|
||||||
