The RIAA

Well they are at it again, suing college students for using internet 2 as a "lawless domain". Who is calling who lawless?

This is what people should understand:
1. The music industry is already compensated for piracy from percentage sales off all blank media and media recorders. None of which goes to the artist (the artist recieving most of their money from touring and having most of the album sales' money skimmed off by the record companies. Any further compensation is extortion
2. The RIAA is a group of five companies that sets the price for its product therefore controlling much of music market and using its financial clout to influence government policy. By definition of it's activites, the RIAA is a cartel. Cartels are illegal in the United States and the only reason the RIAA maintains any kind of legitimacy is because a US congressman would kill his own mother for a campaign contribution or a kickback.

Haven't decided what to do yet, but letter writing and civil disobediance sounds great.

i know, i dont see the point in having an RIAA at all... all releases should be on Independant label and controlled and managed as such, with no interference from the RIAA...

That "compensation" stuff is BS.

Bands still lose money when they're on tour. Imagine if you're only a relatively small band and nobody is buying your album because it's being downloaded all the time. It's not cool.

In a world where our leaders are lying to us and stealing from us we shouldn't be ripping off people who are actually contributing positively to the world with music.

-AC

I don't think that's enough anymore. The heads of the RIAA should be arrested for violation of antitrust laws, bribery, conspiracy, and corruption. As for congress, well, i've gotten cynical to the point where i think that they should all be thrown out of office, prosecuted where apt, and a new congress should be elected.

small bands aren't under the RIAA. I agree that it's wrong to download music from bands on indie lables, unless that download will lead you to buy the album. I'm talking about the big 5 and their big screwjob.

btw, the law that allows htem to monitor and hack into people's computers was a rider to the PATRIOT act

I don't think you should download a whole album from anyone.

"It's not worth buying, it's worth downloading."

If you like the music enough to listen to it, show a little respect to the people who worked hard to make it and pay for it.

On topic, I think the WAY it's being dealt with is rather shit.

-AC

well, one of the main problems is that under the current system, artists AREN'T recieving any significant compensation from album sales. most make about 5 cents on ever 16 dollar cd.

Compare that to an artist on alternative tentacles records that recieves close to 50% off of each unit (the label takes out money for promotion, printing, and touring without making the artist handle that themselves.)

Yeah but they'll receive less from album sales if there aren't any.

-AC