Capitalism At Its Worst.....

The RIAA Inacts Terroristic Penalties/ Cuts Artist Royalties

January 30, 2008 - The RIAA's litigious nature is well known, as is the group's habit of seeking massive damages from anyone that tries to dispute the group's accusations of file sharing but ends up losing in court. $150,000 per album illegally shared has been the ludicrously high going rate in recent court battles, but if the RIAA succeeds in pressuring Congress to pass the PRO-IP Act, statutory damages will rise as high as $1.5-million in the case of compilation albums illegally shared.

A fine of $150k is enough to put many individuals and families into the poor house. $1.5-million is pretty much a life-breaker for 99% of the population, and even bankruptcy in the face of such a claim will mean a destitute life afterwards. Illegal file sharing is wrong, but is the singular act of sharing a movie soundtrack enough to justify crushing entire lives and families permanently? The RIAA's lack of touch with reality is has been blatant for years. Sadly, the greatest defense the American people have against the entity is Congress, which, should it allow the PRO-IP act to pass, will prove itself entirely divorced from the concerns of the general citizenry.


RIAA Plans to Cut Artist Royalties

from IGN.com in the UK
by Gerry Block

US, February 5, 2008 - The rather loathed RIAA, most recently infamous for pressuring Congress to pass the PRO-IP Act, has now turned its unwanted attention upon the very people the group ostensibly exists to protect. According to The Hollywood Reporter, The RIAA is now pressing to lower the royalty payments made to musicians and artists for music tracks sold via digital distribution. Though the actual artists who make the music are presently entitled to just 13% of wholesale, the RIAA thinks they should receive only 9%.

After years of PR that tried to convince the populace the RIAA is trying to stamp out piracy to protect musicians, the group has now made it blatantly clear the only individuals it aims to protect are those in charge of the major music labels, a group of aged executives who have massively failed to shepherd their businesses into the digital age. Now that the existence of both the RIAA and the major labels benefits neither musicians nor consumers, we can only hope that their decline has reached the critical mass that will drag them under the wheels of technologic progress and into the graveyard of history.