Music Nazis

This one almost slipped past me. It seems that the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the rich corporations that own the music, and not the musicians performing it) is taking another step in their crackdown on "illegal" music.

Long story short, the RIAA has filed suit in the UK against making personal copies of CDs "owned" by individuals, and wants to extend its tentacles into private businesses, automobiles, etc., by banning the use of radio music broadcasts that can be heard by others.

Read the whole story here and see for yourself if RIAA is trying to cross the line into fascist Big Brother tactics.

I can't imagine a more short-sighted way to cut profits by trying to "protect" them. Imagine the last time you bought a music CD. Was it because you had first heard the music in, for example, The Gap? Heard it a friend's house? Heard someone whistling it on the street?

All that will be a thing of the past if RIAA has its way. And ten years from now they'll be wondering why no one buys their CDs. Could it be because no one has even heard of the musicians because of RIAA's oppressive policies? And what will their answer be? Given their current mindset, it'll probably be to institute even harsher policies.

I don't believe RIAA has a legitimate claim that I cannot BUY a bunch of mp3 songs from Napster and use my CD burning software to turn those music tracks into a music CD. But that is the direction things are going.

At this point I'm joining the boycott against the RIAA music producers. Fuck 'em. I'm going to check it out with RIAA Radar first, and if the music I want to buy is affiliated with RIAA, they won't get my money.

The ultimate power in a capitalist society lies with the individual's pocketbook. If we don't buy their music, they won't make a profit. Pure and simple.