RIAA-holes

Notorious for its lawsuits targeted at illegal file-sharers, along with an exceptionally poor grasp of even the most basic principles of public relations, the Recording Industry Association of America is back in action.\nLast Wednesday, everyone’s favorite plaintiff announced it has now streamlined the process by which evil, plundering Internet pirates (students) can pay their penances to the RIAA. The organization now identifies illegal network users by their IP addresses and sends “pre-litigation letters” to universities. The school is supposed to forward the letter to the corresponding students, who are directed to a Web site where they can settle the claims for a “discounted rate.”\nIts good to see students and colleges working together to reduce court fees for the RIAA. \nYou may sympathize with the RIAA to a degree. You might suspect file-sharing has a true, detrimental effect on the music industry. You might be right. Here are some reasons why I don’t care.\nFor the better part of the last century, record companies have made a living out of screwing over artists. Every deal is different, but here is how it usually works out, according to www.HowStuffWorks.com: After the record company deducts 25 percent of the selling price for packaging costs, the artist typically gets about 10 percent. After “recoupable costs,” like recording costs, marketing costs, tour costs, music video production costs and other expenses, the artists typically take home only about 1.4 percent of the suggested retail prices of their album. The artist pays for nearly all of this.\nSo the recording companies don’t make the most pitiable defendants. Maybe they should hire Tiny Tim as their new spokesperson. The public tends to sympathize with crippled orphans. \nThat would soften the blow when the industry’s lawyers came after the families of the deceased, like they did for Michigan defendant Larry Scantlebury, who died before he could resolve his suit with the RIAA. Ever tactful, the association lawyers issued a motion that included this simple request: \n“… plaintiffs therefore request a stay of 60 days to allow the family additional time to grieve. … Plaintiffs anticipate amending the complaint following depositions of members of Mr. Scantlebury’s family.” \nHow gracious of them to wait two months before suing this guy’s kids. But the public relations blunders don’t stop there. \nLast year, a lawsuit hot line representative told an MIT student the RIAA “has been known to suggest that students drop out of college or go to community college in order to be able to afford settlements.” \nDoesn’t that just make you want to go out and drop $20 on the new Fergie album?\nIf not, maybe this will. \nStarting in 1999, the same year Napster came to prominence, recording industry profits actually rose as high as $14.6 billion, up from $12.5 billion in 1996. Then beginning in 2000, right around when the RIAA began its legal campaign against the file-sharing world, profits began to sink. Interesting.\nMaybe instead of fighting change, record companies could take advantage of the Internet to generate hype for their albums. Maybe suing your customers isn’t the best way to drum up more business after all.