The RIAA Can Go f*** Themselves

Just like the article title states, the RIAA can go suck a big fat cock.

I recently read an article stating that the RIAA is trying to push for harsher punishment of around $1.5 million for copying a single CD comprised of 10 tracks.  Currently entire CDs are counted as single works and therefore if you copy a CD you are infringing on a single piece of work.  What the RIAA wants to do is take that CD and make each track a separate piece of work so when you copy a CD you're infringing copyright law on each track.

If you want more details from the article, check it out.

Most people who download the music don't have enough money to buy the CD in the first place, do they honestly believe they can squeeze $1.5 million out of these poor (translate it however you'd like to) people?

If they want to solve the problem then they should just charge less for the CDs.  Maybe cut the cost in half because from what I've heard artists only make a couple dimes from each CD sold and I'm pretty damn sure that a CD doesn't cost more than $0.50 to make.  So what does that mean?  The recording industry and everyone who has no talent in the first place (other than screwing people) gets a nice cut of all of their clients?

Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about and maybe the RIAA is actually being lenient but at $150,000/track I doubt it.  If I were a major musician I would be doing what Radiohead recently did and put my album online for whatever cost the consumer wants.  If you didn't hear about what they did, they released their latest album online and charged the consumers whatever they wanted to pay for it.  The average US consumer paid ~$8 where the average international consumer paid ~$4.  Only 30-40% paid for it but if they get a bigger cut from the profits they probably ended up netting more money the first week it was released than they had on any of their other albums.  And they're not even popular on the radio at the time! 

I say, dump marketing dollars into online advertisements and radio advertisements then throw a downloadable album on a website with a min. purchase of $1 and be done with it.

I might not know what I'm talking about but it's my take on things and it pisses me off.  Why should some huge organization have the power to go around fining whoever they wish whatever insanely large, totally ridiculous amount they lobby for?  At what point is the government or even the artists going to step in and do what they can to bring the RIAA's dirty mafia tactics to a stop? 

This IS organized crime.

Anyway, that's my rant and that's why I say the RIAA can go f*** themselves.

Oh and I leave with this statement: IP (intellectual property) laws are going to be the end of creativity and advancements.



Disclaimer: I don't have a problem with going out and buying CDs or purchasing tracks online... in fact I do but the fact that downloading and copying CDs shouldn't give the RIAA the right to bully people around and ruin their lives.