[mhking]

since when did we start suing children?

When the RIAA stopped caring about winning friends; they only want to influence people. In their minds, no one is off limits to their protection racket.

They are trying to put the genie back in the bottle. Heh. Good luck.

As opposed to creating a new compensation/renumeration model to fit the new technology, they want to shoe-horn the technology into the old model.

Apple, with their new method, has created a new paradigm that, if adopted by the RIAA, might stem the flow, and certainly reduce the sense of betrayal felt by both artists and consumers.

Unless they can create a new method to sell content by the song, based on the new technology, I'm certain that they will cease to exist within five years.

I'm no fan of the RIAA - I don't suffer bullies very well. I do download music, primarily older and more obscure content that is not available in the US or to American consumers. Not only that, I share older jazz with my dad, who has boxes upon boxes of '78s that are not available anywhere any more.

If THAT makes me a criminal, so be it. But I would dare say that any attempt to force me to pay for something that is not currently available would be problematic at best.

And if they think that this kind of bullying will force me to buy more music, they are sorely mistaken.

[Pippin]

Amen to that! <p. My Brother and brother-in-law have downloaded music from the internet before but I dare anybody to call them criminals for it. If the music industry didn't want people to download music at no cost than why did they take so long to say so?

[Orangedog]

With tactics like suing 12 year olds, I will dance a jig of glee when the entire record industry collapses. The way it is now, the recruiters take some teenage bimbo that can't carry a note, dress her up like a trollop and spent a good amount of time cleaning up whatever they get her to sing. You can clean up ANYTHING in the studio, but put them on stage and it's another story.