"RIAA must be disbanded" - Moby

The case of Jamie Thomas-Russet , which ended a little earlier this week with the “guilty” verdict, probably provoked the flight of more than one cork from a bottle of champagne in the environment of “protecting the interests of the right holders”. However, they forget that the image of the music industry is rapidly flying down with each such litigation. But this is remembered by talented musicians, such as Radiohead and Moby, who pay even more attention to the excesses that are happening in the American courts.

Let me remind you that on the 19th the federal judge of the state of Minnesota found the 32-year-old mother of four children guilty for distributing 24 tracks on the Kazaa network. Fine: $ 1.92 million, or $ 80,000 per song. And let the official speaker of the RIAA call this held “the highest manifestation of justice and reasonableness of a judge,” all this strongly resembles a witch hunt. Only in the role of the latter are simple music fans and people who are not hearsay familiar with modern technologies.

“Argh. This is complete nonsense. Is this how recording studios want to protect themselves? Sewing things up for rural mothers? Condemning $ 80,000 for a song? ”Writes Moby on his blog .

Punishing people for listening to music is exactly the opposite of the right way to protect a music business. It may seem to record companies that “fear means respect.” I do not know whether this is so, but such a business scheme cannot withstand criticism if we are talking about the choice of the buyer. How about a new model: “it’s better to be loved for helping artists make great music and giving the customer the opportunity to purchase great songs for a reasonable price”?
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I deeply regret that any music lover anywhere, anytime, was punished for his desire to listen to good music.

Moby is absolutely right that such a business scheme can turn out to be, and will turn out to be, critical for the entire music industry. And the matter is not even in the millions of fines. In recent years, the RIAA has forced more than 30,000 people to pay an “average” fine of $ 3,500 without even bringing the case to court - more than $ 10 million.

However, it is possible that in the near future the situation will change. Naturally, only if the musicians themselves understand what is happening in the world and how people begin to relate to music and the hungry Cerberus copyright - RIAA. The first steps in the right direction have already been taken: in the UK, Radiohead initiated the Featured Artist Coalition group (which includes other, not less famous, musicians as well), which opposes the criminalization of music listeners and the use of copyright solely to make money.

In Joe Tenenbaum, about which I spoke in detail here , it is quite possible that Radiohead will soon fit on the side of the accused in order to bring the matter to world publicity and possibly influence the decision of the judge and the image of the RIAA. In addition, if Joe and his patron, Charlie Nesson, win the battle, then a national copyright dialogue is inevitable.

“RIAA must be broken” - ends Moby. Nothing remains but to agree.

via TF