I’m as surprised as anyone about the recent round of lawsuits, including the suit against the 12-year old girl. But here’s a quote from the girl’s mom:
“It’s not like we were doing anything illegal,” said Torres. [Fox News]
This is exactly the problem. No one thinks it’s illegal. If you’re in the intellectual property business, take note – this is a problem.
The RIAA needs to find a way for 12 year old girls to be able to buy a song over the internet easily — and still be able to burn it to a cd, or put it on a portable device. I guess the other option is to:
A: try copy protecting all CD’s
B: sue the 30 million+ people downloading songs.
The more I read about this, the more I believe the RIAA is yet another “Evil Empire.” Sure, I agree artists should be paid for their work – but I bought and paid for EVERY song in my possession AND I have never downloaded or uploaded an MP3 file that wasn’t free in the first place. Part of the problem is the fact that a large portion of the music on today’s market is unlistenable drivel. Record companies should follow Apple Computers’ example and let us buy what we want, rather than what we don’t want. I hate paying $15-$25 for a CD and only enjoying a few songs. I often buy second-hand CD’s, that way my wallet hit is less. Don’t chase away the market RIAA with your draconian tactics.