RIAA - At it Again

The RIAA are at it again.

From Yahoo news:

“The RIAA has sent letters to 50 Ohio University students telling them each to pay $3,000 for illegally downloaded music files to avoid lawsuits accusing them of stealing songs from the Internet, the AP reports. The association, which is stepping up its legal action on college campuses, has already sued more than 18,000 computers users since 2003, and more than 1,000 of them were computer users at 130 universities.”

Anyone else think this is getting ridiculous, and yet another case of unfair scare-tactics?

The RIAA is becoming another case of a private organization with far too much money and too much power. They’re in the situation now where they can pretty much do whatever they like, legal or illegal…because even if you’re innocent and get taken to court, what chance does your average citizen have against a corporation with a bankroll of billions?

For example, imagine you’re one of these college students. You’ve downloaded a couple of albums illegally. Fair enough this is against the law and wrong, but a $3000 price tag? It’s a lower penalty if you’re caught in the local music store stealing CD’s from the shelves!

The main point here though is that these students (along with pretty much anyone caught by the RIAA) is told to pay $3000 to prevent being taken to court and sued. This isn’t an actual ‘legal’ fine, technically it’s an offer of an out of court settlement.

Of course, it’s an impossible choice. Admit guilt (even if you’re not guilty) and pay 3k, or pay a hell of a lot more on lawyers on legal fees, win or lose.

Also, if you’ve ever actually been to a college or university, you understand that the computer in your dorm isn’t only used by you. It’s used by your room-mates, your friends, your room-mate’s friends.

So what happens if it’s not actually you that’s downloaded a few tracks? You’re still faced with the same penalty: Pay $3000, or go to court and face a legal battle that you have no chance of winning.

Of course, actual ‘justice’ and fairly punishing copyright violators isn’t the point here. The point is for the RIAA to stuff its pockets and use that money to force yet more cripple-ware DRM into our music and music players (Like the iPod…you’ve bought an iPod, and legally purchased a load of songs from iTunes…feel like playing those tracks on your Zune or another media player? Tough shit, the RIAA won’t let you because you might be letting others ‘steal’ the music you’ve actually paid for.)

That’s right, it’s like buying a CD that will only play on a certain brand of CD player. Totally unfair and completely contrary to fair use laws.

It’s classic RIAA mentality. Who cares if you’re forcing unfair and illegal restrictions on millions of honest consumers? Go for McCarthy-esque witch hunt tactics instead. If the RIAA where in charge of the legal system, they wouldn’t bother with trials and actually determining guilt…they’d throw every suspect in jail, because then they’d at least know the real perpetrator was being punished.

The big thing to bear in mind here is that this ‘fine’ is a flat fee. Download a single song illegally and you’re still faced with 3k or an impossible court case. Seems a little excessive for stealing something worth about a dollar fifty.

It’s just another step downhill for the music industry. For example, the RIAA have recently decided that ripping a track from a CD you own to make your own playlist isn’t fair use. Of course it is, but when has fairness ever mattered to the RIAA?

The worst part is that people are getting pissed. Gizmodo has called to all its readers to boycott any label represented by the RIAA. People (like myself) no longer buy music from the internet, because we’re sick of DRM, crippleware and being told that we’re facing a huge fine or prison time if we do legal things with our music that fall under fair use.

So why is this bad? Because record sales will decrease. People will stop buying tracks loaded with DRM because they want the freedom we’ve had all along to play our music on any player we see fit… and the RIAA will stand up in front of Congress and blame this fall in sales on piracy and illegal music downloads. Result?

The RIAA gets more power and cripples our music and music players further.

What’s next RIAA? Throw me in jail for playing a track I’ve paid for on my stereo within earshot of other people? Charge club-goers per track played by the DJ? Fine me for whistling a song I recently heard on MTV?

My advice is cut the fuck back. Fine people for downloading music illegally, but make it more reasonable. If you fined these students a hundred bucks a piece, no one would care. Send a letter demanding they erase all illegal tracks from their computer and that they’ll face charges the next time they get caught…and you’d be viewed as just what you claim to be, a watchdog group instead of a money-grubbing bunch of jackals.

Your goal is obviously to scare the shit out of anyone who even considers pirating music, be it someone who copies CD’s and sells them on street corners, or little Timmy who downloaded a single track.

However, all you’re doing is creating resentment, ill-will and seriously pissing of genuine music buyers.

In closing, it’s was ridiculously easy for someone to copy a vinyl album to tape. Copying tapes was (and still is) a simple matter of pressing record and play. If I want to copy a music CD to another CD or to tape, I can do that in 15 seconds.

The music industry has survived up to this point with music put on media that anyone can copy at home with little or no specialized equipment (you can copy tapes or CD’s to tape with any stereo). Isn’t it amazing how for the last 40 years piracy was hardly ever mentioned in the press, and today when media is far more difficult to copy than ever before piracy is suddenly such a huge problem, a major threat to the music industry…and such a gargantuan problem that it warrant demanding a total of three hundred thousand dollars from a bunch of students who’ve probably pirated a couple albums each?

Gimme a fucking break. You want the amount of money you would have earned from over 150,000 iTunes sales?

Maybe that’s the point. Maybe through you the music industry is moving its business model away from actually selling music and instead making fines its primary revenue stream.