over the past couple of years, there's been a lot of talk and even some legislation helping the leeches known collectively as the RIAA and the MPAA to tax consumers over product sales that were allegedly lost. however congress has done very little to protect musicians, the actual folks who labor to make music, and have instead allowed greedy thieves in these 2 bodies to siphon funds off everyday americans in the form of taxes on blank media. this is a criminal enterprise, and congress should take action AGAINST the RIAA and MPAA and in defense of both hobbyist and professional musicians and composers.
in the 1980's, president bush the elder instituted a tax on blank cassettes in america because it was assumed that all blank tapes were used to duplicate copyrighted material. what a moronic idea. the cassettes i bought were for my 4 track so i could record MYSELF writing MY OWN FUCKING MUSIC. and for mixdowns to give to my bandmates to lose. i have read we also have a similar tax on blank cd's, although most of them I use to back up MY OWN FUCKING DATA not some stupid commercial recording. Whatever, I'm sick of paying taxes on the assumption I'm a thief, and having that money go to idiots like madonna, michael jackson, and the RIAA fuckers. (yes, the taxes collected on behalf of ALL musicians only trickles back to the top 10% of commercial artists)
some have now proposed taxing ipods because they're used for playing back "pirated music". however, ipods are now used not just for playing music, but for playing back podcasts and as the hard disk for recording live audio. if i'm using my ipod to record my buddies playing D&D, why the fuck should a penny of my money go to the RIAA and MPAA? because they're the evil fucking asspirates.
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if the assumption is that we're guilty and need to be proven innocent, like in france, then perhaps we should go ahead and charge a tax on all automobiles because they could be used as getaway cars. And may as well tax chainsaws because they could be used as murder weapons. seriously, this is back-asswards. the music industry has done so many things WRONG this past decade, from stopping sales of cd singles to allowing big corporate giants like clearchannel to control a wider swath of the airwaves (by owning 60% of the radio stations in large markets like Chicago), which in turn stifles regional music, that it's hard NOT to put the blame on the RIAA members for their own damned demise. people who pirate music and movies were probably never going to buy them in the first place, so you can't count that as a lost sale.
this labor day, think about all the effort that independent recording artists put into earning their livelihood -- writing songs, rehearsing, touring, performing, recording, editing, designing, marketing, selling, traveling -- and then enjoy the fruits of our labor by tuning into live streaming via itunes or windows media player or pandora. or go ahead and visit our websites to download mixes that we give away for FREE. hell, go ahead and load a torrent client and download our music. dammit, we're really only going to earn money if you come to our shows to see us perform live. and to hell with paying $50-$500+ for a ticket -- the most passionate performances you'll ever see will be in some small club where you paid under $10 to get into. i've seen so many awesome shows for under $20 it's not even funny. but live it up, enjoy the music, and stop paying $18 a CD from overproduced, under-talented wannabes like Britney and Taylor and that douchebag Daughtry. That's how I'm gonna' celebrate my Labor Day - by jamming out to Indie rock bands and underground SKA that you'll never hear on your local radio station because CORPORATE MUSIC SUCKS.