When was the last time you bought a CD?
Probably a long time ago huh? And if it wasn't, I'm sure you haven't bought as many CDs as you used to. Let's face it, MP3 is the way to go. How many people do you see around campus walking around with the white earbuds and the white (or black now) circle in the middle of their MP3 player? Practically everyone. It is just another shift in technology, yet the RIAA fails to recognize this.
If you haven't heard, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) have been slapping lawsuits on random music downloaders across America in an attempt to intimidate the public from downloading pirated music from P2P clients such as Kazaa, Limewire, Bearshare, etc. But to me, it seems like the RIAA is just finding a scapegoat to their recent decline in sales, and suing the public will not help their cause, as I will try to show.
First off, the methods the RIAA uses to find these downloaders is a breach of privacy and highly ineffective. The RIAA basically goes to your ISP (the people who provide your internet) and asks for the names of people using suspected IP addresses. This is ineffective because many people share computers, and if someone downloads on another person's computer, the RIAA will have the wrong person, and thus screw the guy over, even though he didn't download anything. Also, an IP address does not say anything about age or gender. For example, the RIAA sued a 41 year old disabled woman for downloading gangster rap at 4:30am. The RIAA also sued a 12 year old girl for downloading music on Kazaa even though she paid the one time fee.
Secondly, even though the RIAA has gone on this rampage of mass lawsuits, it will not stop people from downloading music. At Napster's peak, there were 70 million users registered. After the RIAA successfully shut down Napster, Kazaa came along and at its peak, had 140 million users. This leads us to believe that even though they shut down a major P2P client, it will only cause more people to download.
Even though CD sales has gone down since 1999 with the introduction of Napster, is it really because of downloading? In 1999, the DOW Jones average was at its peak, around 12,000. Since then, the average has dropped nearly 25%, with the lowest being 8,000. It is at about 10,000 right now. Now, CDs are an elastic good, meaning a change in costs will result in a big change in quantity purchased. With the stock market going down, people will be less likely to spend money on materialistic things such as CDs.
Thus, in conclusion, fuck the RIAA.
If you haven't heard, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) have been slapping lawsuits on random music downloaders across America in an attempt to intimidate the public from downloading pirated music from P2P clients such as Kazaa, Limewire, Bearshare, etc. But to me, it seems like the RIAA is just finding a scapegoat to their recent decline in sales, and suing the public will not help their cause, as I will try to show.
First off, the methods the RIAA uses to find these downloaders is a breach of privacy and highly ineffective. The RIAA basically goes to your ISP (the people who provide your internet) and asks for the names of people using suspected IP addresses. This is ineffective because many people share computers, and if someone downloads on another person's computer, the RIAA will have the wrong person, and thus screw the guy over, even though he didn't download anything. Also, an IP address does not say anything about age or gender. For example, the RIAA sued a 41 year old disabled woman for downloading gangster rap at 4:30am. The RIAA also sued a 12 year old girl for downloading music on Kazaa even though she paid the one time fee.
Secondly, even though the RIAA has gone on this rampage of mass lawsuits, it will not stop people from downloading music. At Napster's peak, there were 70 million users registered. After the RIAA successfully shut down Napster, Kazaa came along and at its peak, had 140 million users. This leads us to believe that even though they shut down a major P2P client, it will only cause more people to download.
Even though CD sales has gone down since 1999 with the introduction of Napster, is it really because of downloading? In 1999, the DOW Jones average was at its peak, around 12,000. Since then, the average has dropped nearly 25%, with the lowest being 8,000. It is at about 10,000 right now. Now, CDs are an elastic good, meaning a change in costs will result in a big change in quantity purchased. With the stock market going down, people will be less likely to spend money on materialistic things such as CDs.
Thus, in conclusion, fuck the RIAA.
posted by A. Nguyen at 2:03 AM
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