This article is somewhat old, but I thought it would open up some interesting discussion on here about how everyone feels about copyright infringement, file sharing, and corporations that sue individuals for their life savings.



This is absolutely ridiculous.



I'm not a lawyer or an expert about any of this, but there must be some way to support bands and bypass the RIAA completely. If I could pay for one song, to support someone, I would do it, sort of like Apple is doing now. To sue someone for their life savings (more on this in a sec) for writing a search engine is crazy! The article makes a good point -- it's like suing the creators of Google. How could we live without Google?



So about the life savings, what the hell is the recording industry going to do with $12,000? Are the executives buying new suits? Insane.



I feel personally attached to this sort of thing because I have written a file-sharing program (it's not in use) and I'm 18, similar to the kid in the article. If the RIAA decided to sue me, there's no doubt that I would fight it and never give in to a lie, which is exactly what he did...even if he had to fork over the cash.



Whew, so what are your thoughts?

 

well the riaa comes across to me like a bunch of scared suits. my opinion is that the riaa, really doesnt represent the bands very well, its just another group of execs who have a free ride, and since napster their sales have gone down the tube (cause theres nothing worth buying), and they are scared.



mike

 

I feel the same way. If I was an *established* band I would release my material without the RIAA being involved at all.

 

That's a primary reason for me not purchasing albums at all... I try to buy mostly small label and independantly produced music.

 

To the top...

 

when bands are making less than 700k a year i'll start buying music again... and since that's never going to happen i'm never going to buy more music

 

The RIAA sucks. Like another poster said, they're just along for a free ride off the musician's moneymaking. Bands are also overpaid and CDs cost WAY too much.



I'm proud to say that I do not own even ONE CD that was bought in a store.



Brian

 

You really think bands are overpaid? I was under the impression they earned next to nothing off the sale of CDs...

 

yea dont they make most of the money from touring?



mike

 

yes this is true, you average top 25 band makes about 2-5 cents on each CD sold, you have to remember that CD are made in factories that have workers that are unionized and get paid about 25-100 dollars an hour, depending on their position.



Contrary to popular belief, almost all CD's are made in the USA