If my car breaks down, can GM tell me I don't have the right to fix it?
The RIAA, the Recording Industry Association of America, is a trade group who works on behalf of the recording industry (hence the name), protecting their interests and to ensuring that the industry remains viable.
When the RIAA got it’s collective panties in a bunch over Napster and file sharing, I could see their point and pretty much sided with them. I thought that they were correct in their position that, by individuals sharing music en masse, it could potentially damage the record company and the artists ability to be paid for their art/wares/whatever. Being the lover of music that I am, I certainly wouldn’t want my ability to pick up good music at a good price to be hampered by a generation of music thieves.
As was good business, the recording industry worked together with other companies to develop the ability for file sharing, but one which would charge back the individual customer for downloading rights. Smart move. In order to remain viable, businesses must be innovative and, in the case of the music industry, needed to come up with solutions to ever-evolving technology.
Then the RIAA started going after individuals, filing lawsuits against little old grandmothers whose grandchildren had used their computers to download the latest Britney Spears tune. This is where I began to part company with the industry. Multi-billion dollar companies threatening financial ruin on 12 year-old girls and grandmas seemed to be going a little too far. If you have an ant problem, you don’t pick them off one-by-one…you kill the nest.
Around this same time, the major companies had to settle price-fixing cases brought on by a whole bunch of states. Price-fixing is something I certainly can’t abide by both in theory AND it’s impact on my wallet. I lost sympathy for the RIAA and most of the big record companies (and, no, this is not contradictory to my belief that gas stations having the same price on a gallon of gas does not constitute price fixing.)
Now, based on the newest reports, the RIAA and the industry-at-large believes that I may not rip CDs which I purchased onto an iPOD, nor may I make back-up copies of them for my own personal use.
As this blog tends to be relatively family friendly, I will limit my remarks to the following:
Each one of you “John Brown” “maternal-figure copulating” ”linguistically stroking a rooster” “male offspring of a female dog [plural]” may politely kiss my “heavyset” “hirsute” “pigmentally-deficient” “donkey”.
Phew…
So, by your logic, the thousands of dollars that I have spent over the years on your product will go to waste when the CD player goes the way of the turn-table and eight track, despite the fact that the techonogy exists to ensure that I don’t have to replace that commodity (the music) which I already OWN?
Also, by your logic, I shouldn’t be able to “back-up” your product that I purchased, onto a new, identical format if the disk I purchased becomes scratched (which, invariably, they do)?
“No, Mr. Big Bad Dad, because we’ve made the cost of CDs affordable enough for you to be able to purchase a new copy!” (No kidding…this was actually the logic they used in their filing).
Well, to that I say “”Copulate” you and the horse you rode in on. Go to “Hades””
Even if I didn’t think that logic was so incredibly offensive, it’s flawed. Many of the CDs I have are no longer in print…therefore I CAN’T replace them. Which leads me to my next issue.
Any financial losses the industry might be experiencing are not because of people pirating music, it’s because, by and large, the product you have been putting out over the past few years is “excrement”. There are some outstanding bands out there but, if they’re not pretty enough, or if their music is too complex, or if they’re not willing to sell their souls in order to get a record contract, they don’t stand a chance. Now, the world is inundated with tired, unoriginal pap by hack performers (not musicians, mind you…PERFORMERS) like Kanye West, Britney Spears and (ugh) Nickelback.
This is why people like me, who used to spend in excess of $100 a month on CDs, now don’t spend $100 over a full year. I’ve spent more on computer software in the past 6 weeks than I have on CDs in the past 18 months. Why? Because there have been less than 10 CDs released in the past 18 months which are worth owning.
Message to the recording industry: If you want to survive, go out and sign some decent musicians who put out some original product. Pay no attention to how they look and offer them a fair deal for their work. You may bring people like me back into the fold.
But as long as you keep catering to teenagers with a little babysitting cash, you’re going to lose music lovers like me who can actually have a positive impact on your revenues.
I’m going home to upload my CD collection onto my computer now in advance of purchasing a new iPOD. I’ll probably burn them onto CD as well…before it becomes illegal.
“Puckered end of the digestive tract [plural]”
When the RIAA got it’s collective panties in a bunch over Napster and file sharing, I could see their point and pretty much sided with them. I thought that they were correct in their position that, by individuals sharing music en masse, it could potentially damage the record company and the artists ability to be paid for their art/wares/whatever. Being the lover of music that I am, I certainly wouldn’t want my ability to pick up good music at a good price to be hampered by a generation of music thieves.
As was good business, the recording industry worked together with other companies to develop the ability for file sharing, but one which would charge back the individual customer for downloading rights. Smart move. In order to remain viable, businesses must be innovative and, in the case of the music industry, needed to come up with solutions to ever-evolving technology.
Then the RIAA started going after individuals, filing lawsuits against little old grandmothers whose grandchildren had used their computers to download the latest Britney Spears tune. This is where I began to part company with the industry. Multi-billion dollar companies threatening financial ruin on 12 year-old girls and grandmas seemed to be going a little too far. If you have an ant problem, you don’t pick them off one-by-one…you kill the nest.
Around this same time, the major companies had to settle price-fixing cases brought on by a whole bunch of states. Price-fixing is something I certainly can’t abide by both in theory AND it’s impact on my wallet. I lost sympathy for the RIAA and most of the big record companies (and, no, this is not contradictory to my belief that gas stations having the same price on a gallon of gas does not constitute price fixing.)
Now, based on the newest reports, the RIAA and the industry-at-large believes that I may not rip CDs which I purchased onto an iPOD, nor may I make back-up copies of them for my own personal use.
As this blog tends to be relatively family friendly, I will limit my remarks to the following:
Each one of you “John Brown” “maternal-figure copulating” ”linguistically stroking a rooster” “male offspring of a female dog [plural]” may politely kiss my “heavyset” “hirsute” “pigmentally-deficient” “donkey”.
Phew…
So, by your logic, the thousands of dollars that I have spent over the years on your product will go to waste when the CD player goes the way of the turn-table and eight track, despite the fact that the techonogy exists to ensure that I don’t have to replace that commodity (the music) which I already OWN?
Also, by your logic, I shouldn’t be able to “back-up” your product that I purchased, onto a new, identical format if the disk I purchased becomes scratched (which, invariably, they do)?
“No, Mr. Big Bad Dad, because we’ve made the cost of CDs affordable enough for you to be able to purchase a new copy!” (No kidding…this was actually the logic they used in their filing).
Well, to that I say “”Copulate” you and the horse you rode in on. Go to “Hades””
Even if I didn’t think that logic was so incredibly offensive, it’s flawed. Many of the CDs I have are no longer in print…therefore I CAN’T replace them. Which leads me to my next issue.
Any financial losses the industry might be experiencing are not because of people pirating music, it’s because, by and large, the product you have been putting out over the past few years is “excrement”. There are some outstanding bands out there but, if they’re not pretty enough, or if their music is too complex, or if they’re not willing to sell their souls in order to get a record contract, they don’t stand a chance. Now, the world is inundated with tired, unoriginal pap by hack performers (not musicians, mind you…PERFORMERS) like Kanye West, Britney Spears and (ugh) Nickelback.
This is why people like me, who used to spend in excess of $100 a month on CDs, now don’t spend $100 over a full year. I’ve spent more on computer software in the past 6 weeks than I have on CDs in the past 18 months. Why? Because there have been less than 10 CDs released in the past 18 months which are worth owning.
Message to the recording industry: If you want to survive, go out and sign some decent musicians who put out some original product. Pay no attention to how they look and offer them a fair deal for their work. You may bring people like me back into the fold.
But as long as you keep catering to teenagers with a little babysitting cash, you’re going to lose music lovers like me who can actually have a positive impact on your revenues.
I’m going home to upload my CD collection onto my computer now in advance of purchasing a new iPOD. I’ll probably burn them onto CD as well…before it becomes illegal.
“Puckered end of the digestive tract [plural]”
posted by Big Bad Dad at 4:19 PM
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