The popular artist Moby has made a post on his blog saying that the RIAA should be disbanded. It isn't the first time that artists in the industry have spoken out against the association which sues children, dead people and your mom. I had written an opinion piece on why file share is here to stay and the RIAA is fighting for a lost cause.
This was all prompted by the ongoing case between the RIAA and Jamie Thomas, a stay at home mom who was recently ordered to pay 80,000 USD per song for having downloaded 24 songs. The total adds up to a cool 1.92 million dollars which, of course, will end up going upaid when she declares bankruptcy.
Here is what Moby had to say about the RIAA's fear tactics on his blog:
"the riaa have sued Jammie Thomas-Rasset of minnesota for $2,000,000 for illegally downloading music.
argh. what utter nonsense. this is how the record companies want to protect themselves? suing suburban moms for listening to music? charging $80,000 per song?
punishing people for listening to music is exactly the wrong way to protect the music business. maybe the record companies have adopted the 'it's better to be feared than respected' approach to dealing with music fans. i don't know, but 'it's better to be feared than respected' doesn't seem like such a sustainable business model when it comes to consumer choice. how about a new model of 'it's better to be loved for helping artists make good records and giving consumers great records at reasonable prices'?
i'm so sorry that any music fan anywhere is ever made to feel bad for making the effort to listen to music.
the riaa needs to be disbanded.
moby"
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