Jeremy Charette
10-11-2007, 07:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/theluddite/2007/10/luddite_1011' target='_blank'>http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/theluddite/2007/10/luddite_1011</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The RIAA, faced with plummeting CD sales and increasingly restive artists, wanted to "send a message" to all the lowlifes out there who download music for free and undercut their profit margins. The message, apparently, is this: "We're idiots." The RIAA, after all, is the guardian of an industry so antiquated and oppressive that having sympathy for these guys is a little like feeling sorry for a Georgia slaveholder after watching Sherman's troops fire his mansion and scatter his livestock."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/inside-the-riaa.gif" /><br /><br />Sharing copyrighted music over file sharing services is illegal in the United States. No question. That said, the RIAA is effectively putting itself out of business. Rather than stand by and be taken advantage of, artists are choosing to dump the record labels and self-publish, and self-promote. When your own clients are leaving because you make <i>them</i> look bad, it's time to take a step back, and decide whether or not this strategy is really working.