Another reason to despise the abominable RIAA

http://au.gear.ign.com/articles/749/749883p1.html

After managing to earn the disgust of most Americans and indeed, the global community too, by suing the arse out of the US community, focusing on the vulnerable, such single-mothers with young children, grandparents, those who don't even own a computer at all, and get this - dead people - they've decided to add another weapon to their arsenal. In short, they're jealous that music publishers and artists have finally found a way to bypass the main revenue stream for the RIAA (that being selling CDs and digital downloads) by selling their material as ringtones, among other ways.

So, to get back at them, they decided to appeal to the US legal system to allow them to decrease the percentage that music publishers and artists get per sale. That's right - if successful, the RIAA members get even more money at the expense of those who actually did all the hard work!

"At best the RIAA is kicking artists when they're down via this action, and at worst has fully revealed that despite repeated claims that artists need to be protected from piracy, the organization is very much the tool of the major labels and publishers who have famously never really cared about the artists in the first place." - IGN

That quote basically sums it up, and I know, everyone says go support the independent artists, but I don't think that's a solution at all. Surely you're depriving the record companies of money, but what about the artists that are already contracted to them?

Luckily the RIAA equivalents down under aren't so litigious, but ultimately, seeing as it seems like there's more chance of me infiltrating Microsoft than the RIAA suddenly having a change of tact to the good side, its in the artists' and consumers' hands. And with the internet, we're already seeing a change like artists hosting songs on myspace. Shawn Fanning's new contraption, snocap, will likely further drive this trend (after all, he is the guy who created the original Napster, so he seems to be able to understand the music scene).