RIAA Must Be Disbanded - Moby

The Jamie Thomas-Russet case , which ended a little earlier this week with the verdict “guilty,” probably provoked the departure of more than one cork from a bottle of champagne in the midst of “protecting the interests of copyright holders”. However, they forget that the image of the music industry is rapidly flying down with every such litigation. But talented musicians such as Radiohead and Moby remember this , paying even more attention to the atrocities that are happening in American courts.

Let me remind you that on the 19th, a federal judge in Minnesota found the 32-year-old mother of four children guilty of distributing 24 tracks on the Kazaa network. Fine: $ 1.92 million, or $ 80,000 per song. And even though the official RIAA speaker called it “the highest manifestation of justice and reasonableness of a judge”, all this strongly resembles a witch hunt. Here are just the roles of the latter - ordinary music fans and people who are not familiar with modern technology by hearsay.

"Argh. This is complete nonsense. Is this how record studios want to protect themselves? Sewing things to rural mothers? Condemning $ 80,000 per song? ” - Moby writes on his blog .

Punishing people for listening to music is the exact opposite of the right way to protect the music business. Perhaps the record companies seem to be "afraid - it means respect." I do not know if this is so, but such a business scheme cannot withstand criticism if we are talking about the choice of a buyer. What about the new model: “Better to be loved for helping artists make great music and giving customers the opportunity to purchase great songs for a reasonable price?”

I am extremely sorry that any music lover anywhere, anytime, was punished for his desire to listen to good music.

Moby is absolutely right that such a scheme of doing business may turn out to be, and it will turn out, critical for the entire music industry. And it’s not even a matter of millions of fines; in recent years, the RIAA has forced more than 30,000 people to pay an “average” fine of $ 3,500 without even bringing the case to court - this is more than $ 10 million.

However, it is possible that in the near future the situation will change. Naturally, only if the musicians themselves understand what is happening in the world and how people begin to relate to music and the hungry Cerberus copyright - RIAA. The first steps in the right direction have already been taken: in the UK, Radiohead has launched the band Featured Artist Coalition(which, in addition to the aforementioned collective, includes other equally famous musicians), which opposes the criminalization of music listeners and the use of copyright solely to make money.

In the “Joe Tenenbaum Case”, which I spoke about in detail here , it is quite possible that Radiohead will soon be on the side of the accused in order to publicize the case and possibly influence the decision of the judge and the image of the RIAA. Moreover, if Joe and his patron, Charlie Nesson, win the lawsuit, then a national dialogue on copyright is inevitable.

“The RIAA must be defunded,” ends Moby. There is nothing left but to agree.

via TF