I know this is going to be low on the radar screen for a lot of people, but hiring Motion Picture Association of American (MPAA) and Recording Industry Association America (RIAA) lawyers is REALLY REALLY bad for the country.
How the hell do I stop this???
Apparently, my diary was to short, so let me expound a little bit. The MPAA and the RIAA are actively involved in using the government to maintain life support on a dying business model by criminalizing the majority of Americans. This is a Bad Thing(tm). It:
- Prevents the free market from working.
- Stifles innovation; innovation breeds profit, helps the economy.
- Makes people trust government a lot less when this kind of hypocrasy goes on...
I could go on, but hopefully this is long enough to post.
An answer to the comments I got. I don't usually get comments, so I didn't expect anyone to really be reading this, but here is an expanded bit about why this is bad. The whole evilness of these organizations is a rather long discussion, that many liberals don't quite agree with (I mean understand, but I'm being nice).
So, my response to the questions below:
Ok, so these two associatiosn claim to represent artists making movies and music, respectively. What they actually are is an unnecessary layer of middlemen who profit by controlling what music and what movies get made and people get exposed to.
Actually, I'm kinda surprised that anyone on this site doesn't know about this stuff; Kos talks about it fairly extensively in Taking on the System.
According to the RIAA, more than half of college age students download music at some point. Having been through college, I feel like the number is probably higher, but that's pure anecdotal evidence and inadmissable. Needless to say, a non-trivial percentage of the country prefers to download music, often from "illegal" sites.
I don't want to have to completely reproduce the argument here in this diary, but let me try and give quick answers to common questions.
Q1) Doesn't downloading mean artists don't get their fair share.
A1) Actually a lot of artists have been block from offering their own music for download by the RIAA. Digital music offers a more direct connection between artist and fan, providing more money to the artist (though often through other forms of payment then cd or direct music sales), and more access and enjoyment for the fan. From the artist/fan perspective, it's almost always a win/win. What it doesn't leave room for is gate-keeping middlemen...the RIAA.
Q2) Isn't this illegal? Aren't they stealing?
A2) You're getting into a long philosophical argument here, but the answer that you haven't heard or aren't yet buying is that making a digital copy, ie., downloading, isn't actually stealing. You are not depriving anyone of anything, you are not taking something physical, the person from whom you are "stealing" has not actually lost anything. So no, this isn't stealing. People do not have a fundamental right to "own" ideas. They are no property. If you read the constitution, copyright and patents, intellectual privilege, was instituted not to protect the creator, but to insure there was SOME incentive for creativity. Allowing people endless "rights" to things that they have already created is actually DE-incentivising creativity, and is putting a stop to innovation. It HURTS the country.