[sdiy] The RIAA Blows.... (fwd)

[Batz Goodfortune]

Y-ellow All.
         Certainly I have no love of the RIAA or any of the other REAL 
thieves of the music industry but I'm wondering how 'n' hell this relates 
to independents? Sure the bill as it stands is retroactive and could cause 
problems for any Internet broadcaster who has previously been so short 
sighted as to have been playing major record label noise in the past but 
the RIAA can't touch anyone who hasn't been sucking it's teet.

I don't care if some broadcaster or the public feel that they need to 
play/listen to some commercial music pap. If that's what they want to do 
then go right ahead. But by the same token, don't come running to me when 
the hydra that is the RIAA sends it's shit-demons in to kick yo' ass.

But I'm not saying the indies are any better really. Most of them seem to 
be still major label wannabes and if that's the kind of model they're 
pursuing then they do so at their own risk.

Going back a number of years, some of you may recall that I tried to start 
an organization called "Independence". The idea was to bring together as 
many of the true independent artists and labels to form a cohesive body to 
resist exactly these kinds of ploys. Not just the RIAA but ARIA and any 
other toadying mouth piece of the major record companies. Many came on 
board but even then quite a few missed the point. It would seem that many 
independents are still confused about the whole idea of being independent. 
Still I couldn't drag together a critical mass because most indies are too 
wrapped up in their own self-importance and the traditional music industry 
market model to see the big picture.

So now when the indies actually need their own equivalent of the RIAA etc, 
to wave the flag and say "Hey, Sony and BMG aren't the only ones in this 
game." they start winging about how there's no-one to protect them.

And it's a moot point anyway. If I wanna start an internet broadcaster and 
blast out my own music and perhaps that of my record label's, who 'n fuck 
is going to stop me? The RIAA? I don't fucking think so. They can kiss my 
ass. It's my music. I wrote it. I own it, and I'll jolly well do what I 
like with it. More to the point. The Recording Industry Ass. of America is 
exactly that. They may be a mouth-piece for all the billion dollar record 
labels but they can only influence American law. There's a whole world out 
there and you're all connected to it. So just get a damn server in Belgium 
or somewhere and carry on as if nothing happened. Ironically, My server is 
in the States because of some idiot laws in Australia. But the RIAA's new 
CRAP law (Sorry CARP law) still doesn't affect me.

Personally I feel the approach should be to just let them do what they want 
and subsequently hang themselves in the process. And if the public don't 
mind getting their musical drinking water from a stagnant pool, so be it. 
But to my reckoning and to many other's as well, it would seem, the Music 
industry is in the business of going out of business. We just have to step 
out of the way while it's in it's death throws. What the RIAA is trying to 
get pushed through congress is a desperate act. By the time it has teeth 
the digital landscape will have changed again and it'll be largely useless.

Prior to the I.T. Age, they use to refer to "Loop holes" In the digital age 
we call them work-around-solutions. So here's the deal. I'll give your 
little internet broadcaster unlimited rights to broadcast my music 
providing they buy a CD and give adequate attribution. They can even 
download and play the stuff that's out there on the net if they want. And 
if some trained monkey from the Recording Industry Ass. of America comes a 
knockin' and tries to make you pay up for it, tell 'em to talk to me first. 
Sure I'll let 'em slug you with a bill but only if they pay me a lump sum 
yearly fee of 10 million dollars up front. (After tax and all other 
deductions) And if they're stupid enough to do that then I'm stupid enough 
to pay you 500 bux a day to stay on air. Hey. I might even take you to 
lunch with some of the change. McDonald's or Burger King. Your choice. Oh 
ok then Pizza hut but I'm not going anywhere near KFC Ok. :)

Don't worry about it. If you're truly independent then it's not going to 
hurt you one bit.

But having said that, if you ever come across an RIAA member drowning, 
throw them a rope. With an anvil attached.

Be absolutely Icebox.

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