ever been out to a bar with a friend who didn't know when to shut the fuck up? he gets a few drinks in him and he starts yapping on or he goes and hits on some chick who doesn't appear to have a boyfriend in the 2 seconds he looks at her. he gets rebuffed a couple times and you think "oh good, maybe he'll back off and shut his mouth." but he doesn't. now he's actively pissing people off around him, and you start wondering how many guys you can pull off him before the bouncers will be able to help. you could leave him to go get his ass kicked but that's your boy you gotta back him.
well, now imagine that scenario and now picture that you represent all the recording artists in the music industry. the RIAA represents the drunken friend. see, the drunken friend (drunk on POWER in this case) has just upped the ante in the legal world of online file sharing. they are now saying that RIPPING CDs THAT YOU LEGALLY BOUGHT SO YOU CAN PUT THEM ON YOUR iPod OR OTHER MP3 PLAYER IS ILLEGAL.
what does this mean? well basically that the RIAA feels that if you buy an insanely overpriced CD you are now stuck listening to it in that form only. which also means that they feel the only manner you should be able to load an iPod up is by buying stuff to load it with.
does all this scare you? it should. does it piss you off? it REALLY should. how many other companies/industries do you know of that SUE THEIR CUSTOMERS?? this is like someone bumming a smoke off me and having Marlboro sue me for it. here's the things i'm pondering on this.
- are there ANY musicians who are pulling their heads out of their asses long enough to realize, "holy shit, these fuckers at the RIAA are going to kill this industry..... i better back out and distance myself from these lunatics while i still have fans"
- i'm not sure what's worse: the smug way they're doing this as if there's nothing wrong with it, the fucked up commercials they put up calling US thieves ($14 for a CD? and WE'RE the thieves????), or the way they expect us to just give up.
- they're about to call down the unholy wrath of the online community. file-sharing is about to go big-time. i'm hoping that this is the straw that breaks the camel's back and that we see a revolution the likes of which the RIAA never dreamed would happen.
- if someone in Bush's camp had any sense, they'd jump all over this and beat the RIAA with everything they had. i mean, the entertainment industry already hates him so what's he got to lose? if nothing else he'll win over a few youth voters who MIGHT realize that the industry that's been tell them what's what all these years is more greedy and crooked than they ever imagined.
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