O’Reilly Network: Why the RIAA Is Fighting a Losing Battle

“The Recording Institute Association of America (the trade group
that represents the U.S. recording industry) has been up in arms
about the distribution of music online, claiming piracy and
copyright infringement. As someone who has been keeping up with
this thread, I believe their accusations do have validity, but
their actions to fight this problem will not do much in their
crusade.”

“People who use the Internet to download music will always find
a way around the RIAA, much like my dog always comes up with a way
out of my backyard. Build up a new barrier, it will be dug under or
jumped over eventually. They have the notion that they can control
online music just like they have controlled the market in the past,
while not accepting the fact that they are doing too little, too
late.”

“The RIAA has started a war, without seeing that the war has
already been lost. There is too much technology, too many hungry
music fans, and too many computer programmers. Most people who
download music off the Internet have a passion for it. Ever since
the MP3 format was introduced, it has been the format of choice for
these music fans that now have access to thousands of songs and
artists that they didn’t have access to before. The lid has been
lifted from the musical box that we have been living in, and now we
have access to the music outside of the box.”

Complete Story