Remember, back on June 4th, when I mentioned Verizon being forced to give up names? Well, as if this wasn’t expected, now the RIAA is going on a random suing spree to try to scare people into not using file sharing. I bet if the RIAA had a way to figure out if you were letting people copy tapes off of stuff you recorded from the radio (back in the day…), they would’ve been suing people left and right for that.

More people use P2P file-sharing than voted for the president. That’s telling you something. File-sharing isn’t going to go away that easily… I think. I’m going to dig up one of my old Discover Magazine articles, back when the case against Napster was new, and I will inform you on that later.

I would never download movies or computer programs online. It would make me feel like I’m stealing. Lots of people put hard work into making a movie happen. Ever sit through the credits? And, I know first hand how much work programming takes.

The prospect of downloading music, however, would make me feel different. Pop stars and their music are manufactured. Practically none of these so-called “artists” have any talent whatsoever. It’s been proved that CDs are a rip-off, otherwise that class-action lawsuit never would have been successful. (How much of a success, I cannot say.) Also, some music people are interested in are older and harder to find. They aren’t sold anymore, unless you want one of those crap CDs they advertise on TV with a billion songs you don’t care for.

When people buy music CDs, they often don’t know what they are getting. Not all the songs on the album have been played ad nauseam on the radio. All that’s known when bought is the title of song and (maybe) the length of the song. At a bookstore, you can look at the book before buying it. Even if you can’t try out a computer game, at least you can read the box and know what it’s about, or find reviews online. Music is different.

Here’s a useful site from the ever-helpful EFF. If you haven’t already, JOIN!

RIAA, evil… synonyms.