If It Weren’t for the Innocent People Caught in the Middle
As a musician myself, I’ve been saying for years that the old music industry is on its way out. I get a good laugh whenever I read a news piece (usually in the establishment news) quoting some representative of the RIAA claiming that file sharing is going to destroy the music industry.
Idiocy. As long as there are musicians wanting to play music and audiences desperate to listen—and there will always be both—the music industry will continue on. It just may not continue in the same form that the RIAA is used to.
Now, if people share music, it’s because they think it’s ethical. It doesn’t matter what the law says. It doesn’t matter what the RIAA says. It doesn’t matter how much words like illegal or theft are thrown around. (By the way, copying a work may be copyright infringement, but it by definition can’t be “theft.”)
Music customers are defining the shape of the music industry. Projects like iTunes and podsafe music have benefited from giving customers what they want. The RIAA, however, has been fighting against this inevitable change, and anyone who continues on board with them is being left behind.
So I get a laugh out of the RIAA. I haven’t bought a CD in over a decade, and I’m not pirating music. Ever since MP3.com, I’ve gotten all the great music I want, completely legal, for free off the Internet. So I know first-hand it’s already possible to satisfy ones complete musical appetite without the cooperation of the RIAA. So if they want to put restrictions on who listens to their music, let them! And with the increase in on-line video, you can add the MPAA and television industry to that mix. Let them shoot themselves in the foot. What do I care?
Well, I wouldn’t care if it weren’t for the fact that average people have been forced to stare down the RIAA’s gun barrel.
-TimK
