I find it hard to take anything seriously that was in the article since the person writing it had about the sense of humor of a 3 year old. Let them do what they want. Who cares? I haven't gotten sued, so why should I give a fuck? Because someone in a wheel chair or a woman who has to support kids alone gets sued? I'm not a bleeding heart, sorry.
Even if you don't agree with how it was written, everything's backed up with sources and thus makes it hard not to take it seriously. You may not care at this moment who's getting sued, but try putting yourself in their shoes instead of looking at things selfishly.
If I got sued I'd care. But I don't even know these people so I don't care. I think alot of us are taking this whole thing a bit too seriously. USA will be a RIAA run state by 2010? I know some are joking, but some probably really do feel that way. It's just music, and it will always be out there in an illegal form, one way or another. The US government couldn't stop the distribution of alcohol or drugs, why is this any different?
Casey has a good point there, Mark. Music, no matter what, will be out there in some illegal way. It's not like the RIAA can just take over the internet, and every little music site that pops up is immediately deleted and creators sued. It's impossible.
I'm not saying that it can be stopped. I agree that it never will be. And the RIAA will never come close to stopping it. It's just that Casey's "I don't care as long as it doesn't affect me" attitude is both unnecessary and selfish. People are getting made examples of by the RIAA in these ridiculous lawsuits and being handed huge fines and court bills. If it was justified, like a rapist or murderer being tried for their crimes, I'd see his point. But this is completely unjustified and these people are being picked on in an attempt by the RIAA to scare people away from downloading. It's unfair. Now I know the typical Casey reply will be "life's unfair, deal with it", but to not have any compassion for someone who's getting bullied by a large corporation like this is just ridiculous, and I'll say it again; selfish. Surely you have some compassion for these poor people. That's my point.
... what? Oh yeah, thanks to the RIAA, there's more pirates. Downloads shot up during the Christmas period, with 9.6 million sold - the biggest week on record for download sales. "More and more we're seeing customers switch to downloads or burning CDs from their friends," said Jesse Klempner, owner of Aron's Records in Hollywood.