First things first, I must re-blog and disseminate the words of Moby:

the riaa have sued Jammie Thomas-Rasset of minnesota for $2,000,000 for illegally downloading music.

argh. what utter nonsense. this is how the record companies want to protect themselves? suing suburban moms for listening to music? charging $80,000 per song?

punishing people for listening to music is exactly the wrong way to protect the music business. maybe the record companies have adopted the ‘it’s better to be feared than respected’ approach to dealing with music fans. i don’t know, but ‘it’s better to be feared than respected’ doesn’t seem like such a sustainable business model when it comes to consumer choice. how about a new model of ‘it’s better to be loved for helping artists make good records and giving consumers great records at reasonable prices’?

i’m so sorry that any music fan anywhere is ever made to feel bad for making the effort to listen to music.

the riaa needs to be disbanded.

moby

I’m not a huge fan of Moby’s music, but I agree with him 100% in this case. You see, I’m a Christian artist. No, I’m not making CCM albums anymore, but I believe in a Christian philosophy which can be summed up as this: I believe that people will try to steal from me whether I am a tyrant or a beggar. What defines me and my nature is how I treat other people, even if they’re not concerned with how they’re treating me.

The RIAA believes that huge fines will deter people from file sharing, much in the way that capital punishment seems to be deterring people from killing each other. Those of us in the reality-based community understand that you will never keep people from stealing, all you can do is treat your legitimate customers like kings and make their experience worth more than the 99¢ track they’re paying for.

Update: And now Richard Marx, an artist actually “damaged” by this file sharing, has released a public statement decrying the verdict and siding with Ms. Thomas-Rasset, calling it “farcical”.