I like to bash the RIAA and the artists.
File sharing (stealing) is wrong. What RIAA is doing is much much much worse and should fall under RICO laws IMO.
The good news is CD sales are low and maybe the monopoly in the music industry will die.
While I agree that file sharing may be wrong in as much as a person would download music from someone they don’t know.
I have a problem with the concept that I can’t send a file to a friend and say to him “ dig this”, without it being a copyright violation that could land me in civil court...
I cheer the file sharers on for one simple reason and that is that they are driving music industry profits down. Profits to the record labels AND musicians. Both of whom are grossly over paid and over indulged.
In that it is disproportionate. What are the royalties worth on a CD? Taking someone's house for shoplifting a lipstick? Tying up the courts with tens or hundreds of thousands of lawsuits betting people will pay $3000 to "settle"? Where is the real piracy here?
The RIAA is in an absolute sense, "right". But when using the barratry form of terror, they lose all moral authority, and deserve death Bad Things.
Lower CD sales does not necessarily mean lower music sales...
CD sales may be down, but iTunes is the number one retailer of music in this country. Amazon is number two, and has a thriving download service.
FYI. Have a great weekend!