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The RIAA doesn't *protect their intellectual property*.

It protects its client's intellectual property.

How many songs has the RIAA written?

Zero. Its customers, who willingly and voluntarily signed up with them, have written a lot of songs though. Don't they deserve legal protection for the intellectual property they sweated and worked hard to produce too?

What a farce!!!

The only real "farce" here lies in the attitudes of otherwise intelligent Freepers who defend theft and the death of a thousand cuts by wastoids on the Internet stealing their product.

It protects its client's intellectual property.
LMAO!!! They do? Wanna bet? Its customers, who willingly and voluntarily signed up with them, have written a lot of songs though.
Oh my. Are you affiliated BMI or ASCAP perchance? Those are the outfits that COLLECT monies for artists for the broadcasting/use of their work. NOT the RIAA. The only real "farce" here lies in the attitudes of otherwise intelligent Freepers who defend theft and the death of a thousand cuts by wastoids on the Internet stealing their product.
Psst, calling the downloading of music *theft* 10,000 times a day will never make it real. Again, I'd love to learn my copywritten work is being downloaded thousands of times a day. To know I'm reaching so many more people than the RIAA monopoly (take some time some day and learn what a recording contract REALLY is) allows is a wonderful thing.

Stealing? It's called sharing. And it also while bearing some resemblance to the original tracks on the ripped CD, the MP3 compression algorithm alters it enough that it no longer possesses the same audio fidelity as the original. No different that recording a tape of a CD or record and giving it to a friend. You keep the original, with its superior fidelity. If your friend likes it, maybe they buy a CD. While this in the strictest letter of the law is a copyright infringement, it was seldon, if ever enforced. Only now, when technology has allowed this behavior to escalate into the tens of millions of individuals, has RIAA taken notice. It is a war they cannot win, as hackers and their ilk will devise untraceable methods of file-sharing.

The big misunderstanding is that some here think others are defending theft. Nobody is defending theft. Some just simply believe their argument hinges on the theft issue.

Again, that isn't the issue.

The issue is how to profitably produce and distribute music.

What some are calling theft is simply a symptom of the disease. More laws won't prevent it.

Passing laws against file-swapping (or enforcing those already there) will do nothing to slow the problem.

IF the goal is to produce and distribute music profitably, laws are not a solution. Technology makes it mute.

Until people see it as fair and reasonable, they will continue their swapping. Of course, SOME people will always swap, just like some people always cheat on taxes.

The model must change.

Apple has just one of an infinite number of alternate models.