With the news that the RIAA has just sued and settled with a twelve year old girl, it might be time to think about what kinds of people your CD purchasing supports. If you conclude (as I did) that you would prefer your money went to people with slightly better ethics, then you should look to the Internet for your music.
Rather than sharing copyrighted files, why not try downloading music legally? I have previously mentioned Emusic as a subscription based MP3 downloading service, but there are also a host of other avenues for finding new (and free) music on the Internet. Best of all, even if you do choose to buy music, none of your money will end up in the coffers of the RIAA and its member organisations.
You don’t need to worry about getting sued by the Recording Industry Assocation of America or arrested by the FBI if you download legal music. Many independent and unsigned musicians offer downloads of their music in hopes of attracting more fans. Here’s some music from my friends The Divine Maggees, Oliver Brown and Rick Walker’s Loop.pooL.
If everyone started downloading legal music instead of violating copyright with the file sharing programs, we would make short work of the RIAA, because people would start buying CDs directly from the artists and seeing their shows instead of enriching the major labels by buying CDs from the bands the labels have chosen for us to listen to. The RIAA would also have no cause to complain - these music downloads do not infringe copyright because the artists give you permission to download them.
More (including links to sites where you can download music free and legally) at http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/9/5/05113/70314.
This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2003 at 17:09 and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.