convenience.
Instead of sending a huge, server-crashing email with many attachments, I decided to create a simple blog with my writing samples as posts. They are more or less in chronological order. All interviews conducted by Megan Biss.Thursday, August 10, 2006
Editorial
The Spectator (campus newspaper for Chabot College), October 2003
Over the weekend, the Recording Industry Artists Association made a serious mistake in it’s witch hunt for MP3 file-sharers. It sent out about 200 warning emails to suspected music swappers. The email offered two options: either delete all illegal MP3 files or get pursued in court.
Getting pursued in court by the RIAA is serious business. They are on a litigious quest for blood and are suing for upwards of $150,000 per song.
Whether you think MP3s are the devil incarnate or merely fun is not the question at hand. Everybody has their own views on the fairness and legitimacy of online file-sharing. The question at hand is whether what the RIAA is doing is fair or even right.
I don’t think it is. Copyright infringement is illegal and from that standpoint, it’s wrong. But dragging countless people to court and suing them for thousands of dollars and using only scare tactics on others is even worse.
This new development in the ongoing court saga just further illustrates how desperate the RIAA has become. They sued Napster and that didn’t work. More programs just like it continue to surface. So they’ve moved onto you and me.
As an average MP3 sharer, I am hardly an innocent bystander in the matter. But I don’t have the money to pay for even 1/100th of one fine, let alone the 950 they could possibly convict me for owning.
So are they going to drag literally millions of Americans through the courts? The legal costs incurred with such a feat would far outweigh anything they’d collect. It would do more financial damage than MP3s ever could. Perhaps it dawned on them that anyone who they sue will probably never willingly pay money for a CD again.
Whatever the case, 200 people received emails last week proving that once again the RIAA has failed at finding an equitable solution to downloadable music.
So while the RIAA’s brain trust tries to come up with another fabulous idea, keep downloading those Metallica Mp3s.
Over the weekend, the Recording Industry Artists Association made a serious mistake in it’s witch hunt for MP3 file-sharers. It sent out about 200 warning emails to suspected music swappers. The email offered two options: either delete all illegal MP3 files or get pursued in court.
Getting pursued in court by the RIAA is serious business. They are on a litigious quest for blood and are suing for upwards of $150,000 per song.
Whether you think MP3s are the devil incarnate or merely fun is not the question at hand. Everybody has their own views on the fairness and legitimacy of online file-sharing. The question at hand is whether what the RIAA is doing is fair or even right.
I don’t think it is. Copyright infringement is illegal and from that standpoint, it’s wrong. But dragging countless people to court and suing them for thousands of dollars and using only scare tactics on others is even worse.
This new development in the ongoing court saga just further illustrates how desperate the RIAA has become. They sued Napster and that didn’t work. More programs just like it continue to surface. So they’ve moved onto you and me.
As an average MP3 sharer, I am hardly an innocent bystander in the matter. But I don’t have the money to pay for even 1/100th of one fine, let alone the 950 they could possibly convict me for owning.
So are they going to drag literally millions of Americans through the courts? The legal costs incurred with such a feat would far outweigh anything they’d collect. It would do more financial damage than MP3s ever could. Perhaps it dawned on them that anyone who they sue will probably never willingly pay money for a CD again.
Whatever the case, 200 people received emails last week proving that once again the RIAA has failed at finding an equitable solution to downloadable music.
So while the RIAA’s brain trust tries to come up with another fabulous idea, keep downloading those Metallica Mp3s.
posted by tall sean tawn # 10:21 PM 
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