lumpy blog

Is it really news that the RIAA sucks? Their latest victims seems to be small towns that hold free summer concerts. While I agree that artists (and the rest of us) deserve to be compensated for their work I don’t think any good will ever come from the RIAA lawsuits. I also think the sky is blue and other obvious things too. In the story the RIAA lawyer says “We’re not some big bad corporation trying to squeeze money out of [the little guy]”…Really? I thought that was exactly what you were. I agree that they also try to squeeze money out of artists too, perhaps he meant to say that consumers weren’t their only revenue stream. I hear a lot of kids singing copyrighted songs on the T - I think the RIAA should go after them as well, I mean they are rebroadcasting copyrighted material which is fine to do…so long as they pay the licensing fee. No one (except fried dough vendors maybe) makes money on these free concerts and they bring small communities together. Glad that the industry is doing everything they can to squash this blatant disregard for their yacht payments.

To play devils advocate for a minute the RIAA is only asking towns for a few hundred dollars in licensing fees. Even in the town I grew up in, which was too small to have these concerts, it would cost $0.50 per resident to shut the RIAA up. My wife’s hometown of 5000 could shut them up for $0.04 per resident.

Audio available after 10AM EST