Open Mouth, Insert Entire Body

January 15th, 2008

One thing y’all may have noticed lately: I don’t write much about the RIAA or about DRM and such issues anymore. Well, there’s a simple reason for this: DRM is effectively dead in the United States. What with even Sony recently agreeing to drop DRM in order to sell unrestricted tracks on Amazon.com, the "culture of copy protection" in the States has prettymuch admitted defeat—though, of course, there are still plenty of holdouts in the movie industry. Nonetheless, DRM is on its way out.

And I rarely pay attention to the RIAA anymore, as well, for one simple reason: they are blithering idiots. It’s not even a slight challenge to point the finger at them and laugh. Witness this statement from a recent interview conducted between CNet.com’s Don Reisinger and RIAA talking-head Cara Duckworth:

Don: Why [sue] college students?

RIAA: First, it should be clarified that our college campaign is in addition to the lawsuits we file against individuals using commercial ISPs to illegally download and distribute music. Second, college students have reached a stage in life when their music habits are crystallized, and their appreciation for intellectual property has not yet reached its full development. These two points coupled together present challenges to those who would like to be compensated for their creative works. Understanding the value of intellectual property is important to the future job market for many of these students–industries that rely on copyright protection employ more than 11 million workers nationwide and continue to grow.

Ummm. Right. So, how does it help to sue college students so that they can’t afford to earn degrees and work in these industries? And what’s this "appreciation for intellectual property" mean, anyway? College students have a full appreciation for artist’s rights—they just refuse to spend their money on overpriced CDs and digital downloads that are keyed to only work on one computer.

The international music industry has to realize one very simple fact in order to survive: the existence of digital media has completely undercut their old 20th-Century business model. They can react to this in one of two ways: adapt or die. The Internet is never going away; neither are P2P networks. But if the RIAA and the IFPI are any indications…well, the recording industry is doomed. Oh well. It’s been nice knowing you, but you’ve clearly overstayed your welcome.