RIAA: Congrats, you bankrupted a nobody.
See here. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) won their first file sharing lawsuit, nabbing a judgment of $222,000 from a Minnesota court.
Let’s cut to the chase. File sharing is wrong. We all know it and always have. Artists didn’t put the product out to give it away for free, and this is just one of so many examples where technology has outrun the law. It wasn’t such a big deal when you dubbed your Metallica tape to give to a friend. It is a big deal when you put the electronic files on the web for millions to download perfect reproductions.
Record companies say that file sharing is eroding their profits and so they are forced to these extreme measures. Well, you got me there– suing single moms is pretty extreme. But what none of these clowns will acknowledge is the perfect truth of the situation: that the reason file sharing occurs is because the 10-song album as a product is a lousy one with a price point out of whack with reality, let alone with what the market will pay.
Have you listened to popular music recently? I was a teenager in the 80s’, and not in my lifetime have the acts been more bullshit cookie cutter. I turned on VH1 the other day, and in a video the singer had this stupid black mop haircut with a part you could file papers in. And you know what? The very next video featured a song that sounded almost exactly the same with a guy with the exact same stupid mop haircut. These bands look alike, sound alike, and suck alike.
For those who have one or two good songs, iTunes will hand them over for 99 cents each. You go to Best Buy, and you pay 18 bucks for these two songs plus eight more that are as likely to be crap than anything.
And what about user experience? It used to be cool to buy a CD… it had exclusive features for your computer… that is until Sony put a rootkit on the discs and scared the whole world away (tucked away in a program to manage, of all things, its Digital Rights Management, or DRM, see here). A CD had stickers, lyrics, interesting liner notes, stuff that made you feel connected to the music and the musician. None of this occurs now… at least well enough to captivate the audience. So for the average consumer, what the hell is the point?
To the RIAA: want to stop file sharing…? First, take a deep breath and acknowledge that even if you sue the entire country, it will never happen. So what to do? Want to get consumers more apt to pay for music rather than boost it from file sharing sites? Start by focusing some of that legal budget on finding better acts, making better music, making better CDs with better liner notes and better content. Think “The Information” by Beck, or “Extraordinary Machine” by Fiona Apple. Both had DVD’s/ DVD sides with tons of extra content that made that purchase (even in the 18 bucks range) well worth the money. And if that doesn’t work, think $9.99. Even for two good songs and eight shitty ones, the average consumer will see it as a fair trade.
Oh yeah, and that ridiculous award amount? Won’t hold up in a million years. I don’t know what the hell these people were smoking, but how in God’s name can they divine that much damage by a lousy 24 songs sitting on Kazaa… with no actual proof anyone downloaded them or that any actual ”sharing” occurred? If appealed, I’ll bet that the final settlement is less than the all-in cost to wage the court fight. Maybe that will calm the RIAA down.
