2004/10/14

More Bad News For The RIAA

I see from a variety of sources that the RIAA hit a brick wall at SCOTUS today. I am glad to see a little pushback from organizations that have the resources to fight. I applaud Verizon for telling the RIAA to get bent, and actually backing it through the court system. Because of Verizon, the RIAA can no longer go and pull personal data from ISPs with a subpeona. It almost makes Verizon's piss-poor customer service excusable. On second thoughts, it doesn't. But I feel slightly less loathing for Verizon than before.

My major problem with the RIAA has everything to do with them attempting to destroy any possible means of content distribution that they perceive to be a threat. Given that the business model of the RIAA is substantially unchanged from the 20s, I have a problem with the approach. I also don't like how the RIAA and other media conglomerates are attempting to destroy any vestige of fair use under copyright law by whining about perceived losses. The behavior is not surprising, but it is incredibly annoying, both in principle and practice. The RIAA is desperately trying to maintain an outdated business model because change hurts and leads to uncertainty. I just wish they weren't trying to screw the rest of us in the process.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home