Friday, April 07, 2006

RIAA says 'Drop Out Of MIT'


RIAA says 'Drop Out Of MIT'

But as much as I tried to argue that I was in as unique a situation as someone with medical expenses, there was no getting through. Bowie even had the audacity to say, “In fact, the RIAA has been known to suggest that students drop out of college or go to community college in order to be able to afford settlements.

Now, regardless of how you feel about the RIAA's campaign against music piracy (note:I agree with them conceptually...these people ARE stealing music), this
is, of course, insane.
The dollar amounts are nothing to RIAA. They could, instead, have the person sign a contract stating that they'd never steal music again, and, if they did, THEN the fines would be imposed.
Doesn't that seem like a reasonable compromise rather than having someone drop out of school?
The bloodthirstiness of the RIAA helps no one.
Least of all the RIAA.
They need a lesson in human behavior.
The more you fuck with someone, the more likely they (or people who identify with them) are likely to fuck-back.

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2 comments:

Luke said...

Er... If I was anal about this I would say they are not actually "stealing" music.

People who get sued are infringing the RIAA's copyright by redistributing copyrighted material without a license, or paying royalties.

If you steal something and you get caught - you will likely get arrested and go to jail. But you infringe on someone's copyright, you are most likely not going to jail - you are simply getting sued by the copyright holder.

This is a huge difference.

But I try not to be anal about these things, so I'm not even going to mention this. :P

But yes, this is absolutely fucking ridiculous

moleboy said...

from a legal perspective, you are certainly correct.
But from a moral perspective (and I look at this as photocopying and distributing a book) I think its pretty much stealing.
I'm glad you didn't bring it up ;)

Sooner or later the RIAA will realize that this is just bad press for them. I can't imagine that any real money is coming in from these suits. I understand the desire to have this all end, but this is like bringing a gun to a snowball fight.