A few months ago I started redesigning this website, I figured at the time it wouldn't be too hard for me to come up with at least one article a week. Well, summer came, and I got lazy. Really lazy. Don't act like it doesn't happen to you. I finally found a topic I just couldn't ignore, and it seemed like a good one to officially kick the site off with. So here it goes.
The Recording Industry Association of America, the same folks I hold responsible for $17 CDs and Avril Lavigne, announced recently that they would begin filing lawsuits against individuals with large collections of downloaded music. Yes it's official. The music industry has lost all touch with reality. Could someone explain how suing your own customers sounds like a good idea?
So far, all of the lawsuits have been settled out of court. To the tune of several thousands of dollars. Jesse Jordan, a student at Rensselear Polytechnic Insitute in New York coughed up $12,000, with a little bit of help from some online fundraising. Personally, I think my attorney and I have already come up with a settlement offer. I'd gladly pay the RIAA $1.00 for every song I've ever downloaded (it's a penny more than I'd have to pay Apple). In return I want a cash refund for every overpriced CD I've purchased which didn't contain a listenable song apart from the single I could have taped off the radio 37 times a day. I'm estimating here, but the it seems like they owe me somewhere in the neighborhood of $300. Get out your checkbook.
I've got another problem with this whole situation. I don't ever want to listen Lars Ulrich or Cheryl Crow complain about how I'm stealing money out of their pockets. They make a helluva lot more money than I've ever seen. What's that, you want more money? Then go get a real job. Not to mention the fact that my "piracy" affects the artists' wallets a lot less than it does the major record labels. Their profits dropped last year from $40 billion to $26 billion. Wow, that's not much to live on huh?
Finally, I have to admit that if I was to be charged with any crime I couldn't imagine a better one than piracy. How cool is that? I didn't realize that downloading that Jay-Z song is kind of like stealing chests full of gold and forcing sailors to walk the plank. How naive I was. And shouldn't I get a parrot now, or at least an eye patch?
I've listened to the arguments for the past few years. I downloaded off of Napster. I swap files on Kazaa. Maybe somewhere in my subconcious it seems like I'm ripping somebody off. That thought doesn't last long. As you've probably figured out already I don't feel guilty about downloading music because it's retribution. I'm tired of paying $15 for a CD, and there's not a chance of me turning over eight dollars for a single. Then again maybe it's not retribution but a financial thing. Or perhaps a combination of the two. In either case this recent turn in the music industry's war on internet file sharing has put some thoughts of another kind of retribution into my mind. I'm not so satisfied in "stealing"just their music anymore, I'd like to find a way to steal from them personally. |
