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ShareGreg Sandoval provides great analysis of Net and music issues for CNET and has done another service to anyone interested in these topics with his recent column, A year out, where’s RIAA’s promised ISP help?. The answer to the question is ‘nowhere to be found.’ Turns out that it was just hokum, A.K.A. a publicity stunt on the part of the RIAA to continue to put the fear of god into the hearts of unauthorized downloaders (who, according to Big Champagne, aren’t really being deterred).
What seems even more interesting is a little tidbit hidden in the middle of the article about why the RIAA stopped pursuing new lawsuits (as opposed to the old ones they’re still pursuing).
“The reason that some at the labels wanted an end to the litigation is that for years it brought down mountains of public scorn. The lawsuits were also expensive and RIAA’s members wanted costs slashed, which happened earlier this year.”
Sandoval also reveals that yet another reason is that the RIAA was trying to get other Net providers to play ball in their imaginary scheme, to have downloaders’ account cut off eventually (a three strikes law).
Sorry to burst the bubble of anyone who thought that the RIAA was being good-hearted and offering a peace offering on this. Hopefully, as labels have to keep cutting expenses, their payments to RIAA will dwindle down to nothing. Or at least the RIAA can get back to one of the few things that they were good at- giving out gold and platinum awards (though nowadays, there’s less and less of those to hand out).
