I agree with everything Armed Liberal just said in "Not Gonna Take It". I've also come out with guns a-blazin' at the RIAA before, and still see them as an out-of-control entity that poses a real threat to the public domain and to liberty generally. Meanwhile, this grimly funny expose sums things up nicely.
That said, one must also consider a 3rd party: the artists' perspective. Photodude's "Guinea Pigs in a Doomed Experiment" is a must-read in that department, as is the estimable Dr. Frank's concurrence: "Ben Weasel Speaks for Me".
It is possible, and acceptable, to fight dangerous strategies like the RIAA's without having an immediate solution. Like the Hippocratic Oath, in the absence of a major social threat one must first do no harm - and the plans of the 'copyright cartels' fail that test badly. Eventually, however, victory will require real solutions. Read our writings here, and read Photodude. Then think it through - and join the debate.
Hi,
Thanks for having your heart in the right place - I'm an independant artist, who'd love to be in your CD collection, if you're at all interested in solo acoustic music.
My website will post some updated information regarding "Weed" files (as in "Growing like a..., not, well, anyway...). These are essentially .wma files that have the options coded into them that allows three plays for free, then asks the user to buy. There is a built-in incentive for the user to pass along the links to other listeners - the artist always gets half (of each 99-cent download), and the people that pass it along get a monetary reward (that stops after three purchases of each song) for doing so.
More details are available at http://wwwAustinOnline.com
Thanks again for helping a starving put that down payment on an extra raisin for his GrapeNuts™.
Tony Barker
Abilene, Texas