Blogging Ottinger (tim)Nettwerk Music Group and MinDawn show the reign of RIAA evil may be declining
You all have certainly heard about how Canada’s Nettwerk Music Group is helping a young person defend against the RIAA. The cool part is the statement that is made:
Since 2003 the RIAA has continually misused the court and legal system, engaging in misguided litigation tactics for the purpose of extorting settlement amounts from everyday people — parents, students, doctors, and general consumers of music. In doing so, the RIAA has misapplied existing copyright law and improperly employed its protections not as a shield, but as a sword. Many of the individuals targeted by the RIAA are not the ‘thieves’ the RIAA has made them out to be.
And later:
Litigation is not ‘artist development.’ Litigation is a deterrent to creativity and passion and it is hurting the business I love. The current actions of the RIAA are not in my artists’ best interests.”\
It is nice to see that someone gets it.
In barely-related news, it looks like MinDawn has the right basic idea. I’m getting curious. They give either ogg (like mp3 but better) or FLAC file format (lossless format) albums that you are explicitely allowed to use in mp3 players or burned to CD or whatever you want to do with it. Instead of suing and attacking and controlling their customers, they’re trying to serve their customers. I am not totally crazy about the special app to preview files (preferring that they had lower-quality perhaps partial songs you could download for free), but I think that this is a very good sign. They’re also getting some interesting artists there. It’s neat.
Now I guess I can call off the army of giant monsters I’ve been growing to deal with the RIAA.
