Record Companies are Pathetic

Yep - you read that right - records companies are pathetic: sad, petty, and useless. A recent case involving a lawsuit against an online file sharer shows just how slimey they are. The jury found in favor of the company (which they should have, the person was obviously guilty) - and then called for $9,250 in damages for each of the 24 songs involved in the trial. (!)

Am I the only one in the world that finds this to be abusive? $9,000 for one song - that on average was maybe shared with possibly a 100 people, causing about A $100-200 loss to the record company (depending on how much you think individual songs are worth. If you know anything about the recording industry, you know that most big record companies only spend an average of about 25 cents per song for a moderately successful song). Charging someone that much for sharing a song online is like finding someone guilty for murder and then declaring that every person in the United States with the same last name as the killer to be executed.

Here's the kicker - the record companies never had to prove that the songs were actually downloaded by someone else. Just offering them online was enough to gain this verdict. So - they only had proof that she cost the record company maybe $30-40 - and they got $222,000 in damages!

I won't accuse anyone of wrong doing (*cough* bribery *cough* payoff *cough* *cough*), but something stinks here.

I'm not in favor of stealing music or illegally downloading songs - but if the record company accepts this obviously unfair verdict - they are nothing but scumbags. And for any artists that stand with the big record companies in this decision - I will no longer be buying your CDs. Or your junk merchandise.


Record companies - WAKE UP! YOU are the ones that have caused illegal file sharing to become such a huge problem. You've done everything you can to steal money from us and the bands you sign - eventually there had to be a backlash. Do you really think we were happy going out to buy a CD of cool song that were heard on the radio just to find out that one song was the only good song on a CD full of junk? Do you think were happy when we invested a ton of money into a record or tape collection, only to have you roll out CDs and expect us to re-buy all the music that we already owned? Did you really think we were going to fall for that again for all the new "better-than-CD" options you've tried to roll out since then? Did you really think we ignored all of those expose TV shows that showed how CDs now don't cost you any more than tapes to produce, but you still keep charging more? Did you really think we've ignored all of the artist interviews through the years about how they were ripped off by you?