Posted on - August 6, 2003 [at] 1:21 pm by Brad
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Here’s a Metafilter thread about this Ars Technica article. From the article:
The big question is: why. Why is the RIAA launching such a public offensive against its own customers when obviously the greatest threat to their business right now are real pirates?
I think that one’s pretty obvious. It’s because much more dangerous to their business than street pirates is everyone collectively deciding those guys aren’t actually doing anything illegal. Which is what’s been rapidly happening. It’s only against the law as long as the majority of the public agrees not to break that law.
As somebody who makes music from time to time, I’m getting a little tired of reading arguments about whether P2P file sharing is wrong or not. I don’t think it matters if it’s wrong and I don’t think scaring or shaming people into paying for music is going to work. You may be able to put the hurt on the Napsters and Kazaas right now, but networks are only going to get cooler and cooler. Everyone knows it’s all changing, it’s just a question of who’s going to be able to adapt. (Everyone knows that too.)
I treat CDs like I treat paypal donations to websites right now. I know that if Artist X doesn’t at least pay off what it cost to get their album on the shelves, there might not be another album because they’ll go do something that actually pays the bills instead. With some artists I don’t care. With others that I think are doing something special, I want to support them in a small way.
And I’m not even forcing myself out of some sort of moral or ethical obligation. It comes naturally when you realize that there’s a very real bottom line in the music making process.
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