The Washington Post has a bracing story about the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) suing people for downloading CDs onto their computers. Not sharing anything, just downloading.
It's sad, not so much for the defendants, who are rightly appealing, but for the recording industry which views litigation as its best hope for the future.
From the reporter:
The RIAA's legal crusade against its customers is a classic example of an old media company clinging to a business model that has collapsed. Four years of a failed strategy has only "created a whole market of people who specifically look to buy independent goods so as not to deal with the big record companies," [attorney Ray] Beckerman says. " Every problem they're trying to solve is worse now than when they started.From the RIAA:
The industry "will continue to bring lawsuits" against those who "ignore years of warnings," RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy said in a statement. "It's not our first choice, but it's a necessary part of the equation. There are consequences for breaking the law."This is a tricky issue, and we don't know of any easy solutions. But it behooves the recording industry to come up with a better business plan than litigation.
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