Having been involved with internet music since almost the beginning, when I was programming director at DiscJockey.Com, I have been watching the mighty record industry implode for over ten years now. And they're at it again.
The latest tactic - get ISPs to do the RIAA's dirty work.
A number of media outlets have been discussing the RIAA's attempt to get the growing European model for hassling file sharers - three strikes and you're out - adopted by the U.S. The problem is, in our country, the RIAA is once again using underhanded, and possibly illegal, tactics. SURPRISE!
If you're paying for your internet service, should the ISP's have the right to tell you what you can and can't do, unless what you're doing is illegal? No, they should not. But do they have the right to slow down your services, and monitor what you're doing, for a third party who has NOT ONE SHRED of legal authority?
ABSOLUTELY NOT.
Yet this is exactly what is beginning to happen. Both AT&T and Commiecast have signed on to the new RIAA "warning" plan, where they will send warnings to subscribers who are BELIEVED to be illegally sharing files.
Read that again - BELIEVED. TO. BE. Scary, isn't it?
Since when the USA become Nazi Germany?
I'm already fed up with the horrible service I get from Commiecast. Despite commericals that proclaim otherwise, they have the absolute WORST HD lineup on any cable system I've ever seen, they repeat channels in too many places when they should be picking up channels I want that our system doesn't provide yet, and they should be providing cheaper and clearer phone service.
If they really DO get in bed with the Recording Industry Association of Assholes...er, AMERICA, that will be the final straw - and I will be right up there helping to lead a major revolt against Commiecast or ANY ISP that dares to try and police what I do in my own home for an organization that has NO legal authority.
The problem with the record industry, and many though NOT ALL of the artists within (as well as the publishing industry, and the movie industry), is that they feel that the record buying public - the FANS - owe them what I call "Infinate Indemity". Get to know this term - it's going to become very popular in the weeks and months ahead. IN short, it means that they want to be paid every time that their piece of product changes hands.
Since when has a free market system worked that way?
That means that all this time - when I've purchased all my recordings over the years, over 10,000 pieces including records, tapes, CDs, and other mediums - i've actually NOT purchased them, but LEASED them, is THAT what you're saying?. Excuse me?
Some examples, if I may...
When you buy a brand new car, you really enjoy it for a while, but eventually, you'll want to move on, and you want to sell the car to someone else. Does the automaker get any compensation for your resale of the car? No.
When you purchase a new home, and a few years later decide to move to a new community, when you resell your home, does the homebuilder get a portion of the equity or the asking price when you get paid? No.
Some of you out there are going to say, "Well, those don't involve artists who own their material and deserve to be paid". Well, correct. The examples don't, and the artists absolutely DO deserve to be paid.
Once.
That's IT.
I know I sound like a broken...record here (sorry about that), but the members of the record buying public don't owe the artists A THING after buying the record - they've dropped their $20 for the CD, and they have done their job of paying that artist right there. If the artists aren't getting amply compensated, then that's the RECORD COMPANY, not the public, and certainly not radio, who never has had to pay for using music, and never should have to pay for using music, because as I said a couple months ago, without radio, the artists wouldn't be selling records AT ALL.
If you BUY a record, you should be able to RESELL a record without having to worry that you're breaking the law. You should be able to give a copy of the record to a friend without charging them for it, record copies for posterity onto tape, rip copies for use on your PC, and yes, you should be able to share your digital files of the songs you've ALREADY PAID FOR with others. The copy you're distributing has already been paid for once somewhere down the line, and NO FEE should have to be paid for that copy - EVER. And isn't there a contradiction in concepts if you've supposedly always been able to share the song with friends at your house and give them copies - how is THIS suddenly different?
(I can hear the RIAA legal teams and chief executives collapsing of heart failure in their LA digs now...I hear lots of gasps and choking going on somewhere in the ether....)
To ask to be paid for every single copy - EVEN WHEN it's already been paid for once - that's the definition of "Infinate Indemity". It's also called something else - GREED.
When you bellyache and moan about a Mom and Pop record store selling used records, and you're not getting paid for it, when you WERE paid the FIRST time it sold, like a certain million-selling country superstar worth over $100 million has been prone to do from time to time, can you not figure out WHY the public has NO sympathy for you whatsoever?
The current copyright laws are archaic, outdated, and need to be updated concering the techologies of the 21st century. I don't mean "fixed" or "patched" or anything else - the current laws we have governing copyrights of music, written word, visual media, or anything else that involves more than one party needs to be completely SCRAPPED and rewritten from scratch. They need to protect BOTH artists AND users, not just one or the other. They need to acknowlege WHAT is payment necessary and WHERE payment should NOT be forthcoming.
It is IMPERATIVE that this be decided NOW, before the combined forces of the industry continue to endanger the existance of radio or internet radio services any further. The current mechanizations cannot continue. BUt we need to be prepared to dictate terms that we find acceptable that make the various industries realize that the people deserve consideration as well.
Reprise The Theme Song And Roll The Credits...
(For more excellent reading on this subject, check out Jerry Del Colliano's Inside Music Media...Jerry's on the inside of things and his views, on this subject and also radio in general, are well worth the daily read...)
