Did I mention I love the RIAA?

In response to this release from them.

One point I notices right away was this quote: “Moreover, our focus on university students is not detracting from our continuing enforcement efforts against individuals using commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP) accounts to engage in this same behavior. Indeed, we have asked ISPs to participate in the same new process that we have implemented for university network users.”

Isn’t that a conflict of interests? Since when have the lawyers of major record labels been in the business of regulation of the Internet. Although everything is fair is corporate business though. I don’t see a trade group having real legal status to sue people however. Is this being done in civil court, where the admission of evidence is weaker? This is why civil court cases, such as the O.J. murder trials differ from criminal murder trials. Anyone see the issue here?

Later:

This is about a generation of music fans. College students used to be the music industry’s best customers. Now, finding a record store still in business anywhere near a campus is a difficult assignment at best. It’s not just the loss of current sales that concerns us, but the habits formed in college that will stay with these students for a lifetime. This is a teachable moment — an opportunity to educate these particular students about the importance of music in their lives and the importance of respecting and valuing music as intellectual property.

So this is about money? It’s about blind consumerism, with a lifetime of capitalist inclinations? The argument seems to be that the students are getting the music but not paying… So when did money become the end all mark of enjoyment. By that standard, the booming health care industry is a sign of how awesome the black plague is, not an adverse side effect of obesity in America. By very admission, they care more about maintaining a model of capitalist marketplaces than they do capitalizing on the current state of online music.

See here’s my issue with the RIAA. Money is not enjoyment. Or the ends apparently. When I think of music and movies and all sorts of nifty stuff, I don’t think products. I don’t think money. I think of cultures and artistic expression. Not lawyers. By dirtying the role of say…hip hop and turning it into a consumerist culture (no thanks to BET/MTV on this one), we become separated from our real identities.

Why is it that we don’t hear (for the most part) songs about the oppression of the lower class by a greedy bourgeois class? Where did the Black Power movement and so called revolutions go? Instead we have songs about money, being in the club and girls shaking their ass. The subversion of hip-hop or rap, whatever the term you prefer, by large record labels fuels a model of class-ism. Instead of arguing intellectual property, licensing types, the role of artists/cultures in creating a more enlightened world, we see two camps screaming at each other.

M$ and Linux for example. “M$ sucks….Linux sucks….” Who the hell cares?! My issue is with unstable, restrictive software that insults the user/hostage while scamming their checkbook. This is the same problem with the RIAA, although in their case they use DRM to sell copies of music, not real music, to users while demanding insane amounts of money (for the corporations they represent) and weakening REAL music. And who the hell stands up for the poor “defenseless corporations anyway”? At one point there were more cases about the nature of a corporation’s status as a legal person than there was for the nature of African-Americans. (My exact source is The Corporation) Anyone else find this slightly ridiculous? That’s not identity in the least, as it is the wanton destruction of a culture whose goal was to better the lives of the people involved in it.

So no, I don’t take pity on poor Bill Gates who can’t afford another car chiseled out of gold. Or the RIAA/major labels. If those institutions were concerned with the welfare of people, we would not be a capitalist society. But the U.S.A. is, and record labels steal more money from artists than college users ever could.

“These are the environments where students receive the guidance necessary to become responsible citizens. Institutions of higher education, of all places, are where people should learn about the value of intellectual property and the importance of protecting it.”

Read: Consumers. Consumers too stupid to realize that their consumerism is hurting the artisan class they so adamantly pretend to support. And who of all the people that enjoy music actually understand the complex inner workings of IP? What school gives regular talks and lectures on the importance of IP?

Of course the Catholic Church thought they were doing the faithful members of their congregation a service when they sold them indulgences. So did the white slave owners who were helping tame the heathens. Say these indulgences didn’t work for whatever reason. Let’s say that the slaves didn’t actually enjoy being slaves. How can these arguments and their repercussions be rationalized to those affected?

When we let large corporations and trade groups push money, lack of identity, and ignorance upon people, we all lose. I would continue with dissecting the article, but suffice it to say, the logical errors and general douchebaggery would make my head explode. Reading it through the few times that I did was more than a lifetime’s worth.