Recording Industry to Sue Internet Song Swappers
I'm trying not to use bad language to describe the disgust I feel right now about the record industry. They've apparently decided to start suing individuals for trading music on P2P networks like Kazaa, for which they can claim $150,000 in damages per occurance. So, if you have 100 songs on your hard drive, they sue you for $15 million dollars. It's time for a boycott. Boycott major label CDs, and boycott the movie industry for supporting this.
I'm trying to think of when I last bought a new CD in a record store. Or listened to commercial radio. Been a long time, and was when I was outside of the Washington, DC area. Radio sucks here, and I haven't had the time to go in search of a decent record store, preferably with a good used CD selection, like I used to have in Knoxville and Chattanooga(McKay's and The Disc Exchange). I've picked up some CDs at shows and concerts, but not in record stores, and not on Amazon.
Wonder if my not buying CDs, and people like me who can't find anything we like on the radio, are the reason that sales have declined? (Can I blame this on Clear Channel? It'd be nice, but that's not the entire answer.) Or is it because the number of new albums released has declined. You can get more information on that from this article in The Register. If you want the raw data, click on the link at the bottom of the article. Used to be these numbers were on the RIAA website, but they were "redacted". Such a civilised word for the practice of deleting information that raises unpleasant questions.
Remember when CDs came out, and they said the price was high because they were new and expensive to produce. And now, they say they're expensive because all of the development they have to do for artists? So, why are tapes still cheaper?
Speaking of which, do you remember when the major record labels got sued for antitrust violations for price fixing, and lost? Apparently they were colluding to fix prices with the record stores. Do a search on the net, you'll find out more about the settlement. But most people, even those who have bought a ton of CDs over the years, haven't heard about it. And there wasn't much mention of it in the mass media.
Apple has made a step in the right direction, with 99 cent downloads you can burn for yourself onto CD. But why should we pay the same price for CD material when we're providing all of the physical product, and they don't have the inventory and distribution costs? Drop it to 50 cents and you'd have everybody behind you. Or drop the back catalog stuff even lower, to 25 cents, since its already been paid for either in popular sales or as a tax write-off, and charge 99 cents for the new stuff. Video stores do it all the time. But the record industry would rather control everything. They don't want to lose the money they make as a middleman, as a controller of the acts, and as a controller of the distribution channels.
About all we can do is quit giving them money to use to bully us. There's really no reasoning with the thugocracy of money. Fritz Hollings and Orrin Hatch are bought and paid for. We won't get anywhere going to the government to help us. So, quit buying CDs from major labels. Quit going to movies, quit buying movies on tape or DVD. Boycott the bastards. Screw the bullies.
And burn your Dixie Chicks CDs. They're one of three dozen artists and groups supporting this. Goddamit, I'm sorry I supported them for bashing W. There I go, using bad language again.