Recording Industry Goes After Students Over Music Sharing
This bothers me greatly. Firstly, why would you sue a kid for millions of dollars? Do you really think you are ever going to see any of that? It will all be settled out of court anyways, so, why even bother? Kids will be kids, why does this change when it comes to file swapping? First off, how is this REALLY all that different from kids borrowing each other's CDs? I mean, I have a ton of MP3s, most are from my own CDs, that I make available to myself online. Every once in a while a friend will want to hear a track from a certain CD and I will send them the track. If they like what they hear, they go out and buy the CD. This is a good thing. This makes people want to hear new and different music and try out new things. If people hear music they like, it means MORE, not less sales for the record industry. As I mentioned in an earlier post, they need to find a better way to incorporate new technologies rather than try to kill them. Much like they wanted to pretty much make the sale of blank tapes illegal, they are trying to do the same with file sharing. In the end it is very much the same thing. People hear music they like, they go out and buy CDs, go to concerts, buy merchandise at concerts, etc. I love how the RIAA keeps blaming file sharing when at the same time, they released less albums than the year before, they are putting out a LOT of crap, they are putting out virtually the same music by very similar artists constantly. The solution is to put out more and better music, not try to play the blame game. I heard something (and I am never going to remember where I heard it) that someone is now creating a program to listen to what is currently popular and design music that sounds like that music in order for new popular music to come out. How sad is that? I mean, today's radio stations play enouigh of the same crap over and over again, why can't we let new bands come out and see what they have to offer rather than offering us the same stuff packaged differently over and over. I think this is one of the reasons I love the jam band scene so much. Not only can I see 10 different bands that are completely different, but I can see the same band 10 different times and have a very different experience each time. Bands like Phish are doing a WONDERFUL job of dealing with file sharing, they are just making all their shows available online just 48 hours after the show. So, not only are they making money from people going to the show, but those same people are then going home and downloading the same show at a high quality so they can enjoy the experience over and over again. This is innovation, not an excuse, much like the RIAA is doing. OK, enough rambling from me.
