RIAA: The Worst Company In America

A recent poll conducted by The Consumerist concluded that the RIAA is currently the worst company in America. The RIAA has sued over twenty thousand file sharers since 2003. They are a relentless suing machine.

Among the people sued by the RIAA are a ten-year-old girl, a twelve-year-old girl and a dead woman. The RIAA has targeted YouTube video uploaders who dance to music, coffee shop owners who play live music, and AM/FM radio. A man who offers free guitar lessons through YouTube videos has even been targeted by the RIAA for copyright infringement because the songs he teaches are copyrighted.

The RIAA has petitioned judges to lower artist royalties. This is the most wrong of all their wrongdoings. The people who deserve the money most in the music industry today are the artists.

The RIAA is not the only company fighting this losing battle against music lovers. The NMPA and MPA recently sent take a down letter to OLGA (as their homepage currently states). OLGA is an archive of guitar tablature. The take down letter was sent because OLGA has guitar tablature for copyrighted music. Most of this tablature is transcribed by ear and therefore not necessarily even accurate. I think it is just as wrong to sue OLGA as it would be to sue a website that posts the lyrics to a song, most of which would be transcribed by ear.

I sent an email to my local representative in the district I vote in because he has accepted large amounts of campaign contributions from the RIAA. The email informed him that he had lost my vote because of the people he received contributions from. Like a good caring politician he of course sent me a love letter back to me stating that he'd love to hear from me again. Most politicians will probably not listen at all but if you are interested here is a list of politicians who have received campaign contributions from the RIAA.

Despite the massive amounts of people that have been sued in recent years due to a "misuse of music," this fight is a lost cause. This is a lost cause just as a war against sex would be a lost cause. File sharing is on the rise and guitar tablature can still be found all over the internet. The plans of the RIAA will probably backfire badly at some point and they may end up in a bad mess with little income and no love from artists or listeners. Until then try to stay under the radar of the RIAA and if you are extreme enough, boycott them.