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

[Don Tillman]

This is soooo off topic for this list, but what the hell... 

Batz is a bright shining light here.  This is valuable and insightful
writing and I hope it gets out to the right folks.  

(For example, there needs to be a standard and easily recognizable way
that independent bands and labels can declare their material freely
available for broadcast with no fees.)

  -- Don

-- 
Don Tillman
Palo Alto, California, USA
don at till.com
http://www.till.com

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> Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2002 21:25:58 +0930
> From: "Batz Goodfortune" <batzman at all-electric.com>
> 
> 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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