RIAA

In case you haven't heard....

RIAA to sue file sharers.

This was to be expected. There was a lively and interesting discussion on Slashdot about it (for extra credit, find my enlightening posts). In case you don't, here's what I think....

The RIAA sucks. No questions asked. They bleed consumers dry (the prices of CDs in the chain record stores hasn't dropped much in recent years....in fact, many have gone up). They steal from their artists...well not quite stealing, but the bands get the smallest cut of the profits. And they are jerks, plain and simple. They've had the chance to use P2P as a new channel for distribution, but they've blown it. So what are we consumers to do?

First, let me say this. I still don't know how I feel about the copyrights on music. Part of me thinks there shouldn't be copyrights on music, but then I think, how are bands supposed to make any money? Most smaller bands don't make much money when they tour, so they have to rely on record sales just to stay above water. The same goes for smaller record labels. Without income from CDs, tapes, and albums, they can't sign artists and provide them with the resources to share their music. If only a small percentage of the population has to purchase a CD, everybody loses -- the band, the record label, and eventually, the fans.

Now, I've downloaded my fair share of music, but I've gotten to the point where I will only download freely available music -- that is, music that the record labels or bands have released for general consumption without payment. Of course, there still could be copyright violations if I in turn distributed that music, but I'm not, so I don't worry much about that. So I download a few songs from artist A, decided whether or not I like them, then purchase their CD. If I can buy the CD directly from the record label, I do, otherwise I head to a local music store (indepedently owned).

So people want to know how to stick it to the RIAA. First, learn what record labels and artists are members (you'd be surprised who you find that list). Then boycott those folks. I know it's hard, but don't download their music, don't buy their music, don't go to their shows. Simply downloading their music via P2P doesn't directly hurt the RIAA because they have a legal recourse against you. But when you buy other music, that does hurt them, because your purchases help the overall sales of music, but don't put a cent into the hands of RIAA. Use your power as a consumer to hurt the RIAA legally.