Another Shot Across The Bow

Everyone's favorite group of evil bastards, The Recording Industry Association Of America (hereafter known as RIAA) is at it again.

Last month, the RIAA sued 261 file sharers. Now they are about to sue 204 more. This time, however, in response to a bunch of whining from a couple of senators, they are sending advance notice to the suees that they are about to feel the wrath of the recording industry.

This has, of course, brought forth the usual hackneyed defenders of the public's non-right to rip off artists, namely The Electronic Frontier Foundation. Impressive sounding name, isnt it? Too bad they are only capable of spouting idiotic cliches.

"The record companies still aren't listening to their fans," said Wendy Seltzer, a staff attorney for the foundation. "Instead of continuing their litigation crusade, the record labels should give their customers the option to pay a reasonable fee to continue file-sharing."

Wendy isnt the brightest bulb on the shelf. What she conveniently ignores is that it isnt the RIAA's responsibility to do a damn thing in this situation. You have millions of people who routinely flouted copyright laws yet the response of do-gooders like Seltzer is that the aggrieved party is supposed to reach out to the very people whove been raping them and find a way so those people wont want to rape them anymore.

That is what is known as a "load of crap".

The RIAA is not under any obligation to provide file sharers with an alternative way to "legally" share files just so they will stop illegally sharing them. In fact, I propose such a remedy would do nothing to stop illegal file sharing because, face it, the driving force behind illegal file sharing is to AVOID paying for the material.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's vision of a utopia where the RIAA stops suing people and those people, in return, gratefully start using some yet unnamed method to share files for a fee is the stuff of immature fantasy. The thing is, the EFF knows this full well. They know it is more likely that camels will learn to snowboard than the bulk of illegal file sharers will embrace a pay for file sharing model.

All this nonsense on EFF's part is just a bunch of bluster designed to give their presence in the debate some kind of meaning. There is no defense to illegal file sharing once in court. All the EFF can do is impotently spew "we are the people" type rhetoric and, in the process, pretend they have something important to say.

In the meantime, the RIAA juggernaut will roll on, unimpeded by such meaningless claptrap. Those who are caught in the web are those who are so stupid to continue the infringing behavior after NUMEROUS warnings and/or those who are so stupid that they dont know what kind of conduct other people are using their computers for.

Either way, it is incredibly difficult to feel sorry for any of them. I dont feel sorry for the RIAA nor do I encourage them in their fight...I simply acknowledge the firm legal basis for their actions. I dont feel sorry at all for those being sued. If nothing else, maybe, just maybe, it will be a wake up call that life does not consist of doing whatever you want, whenever you want, that there are basic rules to follow and if you choose not to follow them, you do so at your own peril.

Posted by Mr. Helpful at October 18, 2003 02:00 PM