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RIAA lawsuits debate

RIAA lawsuits debate

There is an interesting article here: RIAA Critics, and their Critics, Debate Lawsuits

Quoting:

Quote:

People who don’t like the RIAA’s litigous agenda need to come up with a workable alternative. Too many people on the anti-RIAA side like to criticize every attempt to enforce current copyright laws without suggesting alternative enforcement mechanisms, and without proposing an alternative legal regime. I’m not comfortable with simply shrugging at wide-spread piracy and telling the RIAA to lower their prices and stop whining.

The article goes on explaining three sorts of arguments presented against RIAA lawsuits.

Quote:

A moral argument against lawsuits says that bringing the lawsuits is morally wrong.

A pragmatic argument against lawsuits says that bringing the lawsuits isn’t the most clever strategy for a self-interested RIAA to follow.

An empirical argument against lawsuits says that the lawsuits are not reducing infringement.

Any person can believe any of these three arguments or any combination of them as also explained in the article:

Quote:

You can believe any subset of these arguments (including the empty set) without logical inconsistency. For example, you can believe that filing lawsuits is wrong but that doing so will help the RIAA by reducing infringement. Or you can believe that the lawsuits are morally justified and will reduce infringement but still aren’t the cleverest thing for the RIAA to do.

The point is that it is often not clear as to which arguments are or aren't we making against RIAA lawsuits. There is a certain lack of coherence in our voice. This is why it is also much harder to propose an alternative, a solution to the problem we're facing.

I would actually argue with all of those three arguments because I don't think what RIAA and the industry is doing is neither morally, pragmatically nor empirically right. Morally it isn't right because RIAA itself is actually leeching off both individuals and artists. In the world of internet, RIAA is old and orphan because increasingly a middle man like them just isn't essential anymore. Artists have an ability to get to their listeners directly. What RIAA is doing is abusing both the listeners and artists for their own profit while doing no good for either. That is in my opinion immoral. Pragmatically, what RIAA is doing is at least in the long term self defeating because as they push further, they make more people angry, sooner or later it gotta smack them and their "sales" in the face. And empirical argument is just that, empirical. The most believeable science is based on empirical evidence, a proof you can point to and say that this has been prooven correct. There were studies showing that p2p actually doesn't draw sales down so much as RIAA would have it, so if empirical evidence kills their strongest argument (reduced sales), what's left?

In the end, they will be the ones causing the drop in sales which just fits in the picture described in this thread They could end up choking themselves.

So, all this said, what do you think would be the way to consolidate all of these arguments and somehow more coherently stand up in fight against what the industry led by RIAA (in US at least) is doing?
And are there any ideas of a solution to the "RIAA problem" that could ideally maybe even be willingly accepted by RIAA itself or alternatively force RIAA to accept it (in essence withdraw). How can we finally corner them and defeat this problem?

Thank you
Daniel


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