Thieves Are People, Too!
Cassi Hunt is an MIT student accused by the RIAA of stealing music. She refers to herself as a "pirate," and doesn't claim she was wrongly accused. Her idea of remorse? Whining about being told by the RIAA that they've sometimes suggested students drop out of college and/or go to community college to pay their settlements, and implying that she's a "victim":
There you have it, fellow Techsters: proof of the fantastic levels of absurdity to which the RIAA attack has sunk. The Recording Industry of America would rather see America’s youth deprived of higher education, forever marring their ability to contribute personally and financially to society — including the arts — so that they may crucify us as examples to our peers. To say nothing of wrecking our lives in the process. I finally understand what the RIAA meant when they told me “stealing music is not a victimless crime” — the victims hang for all to see.Please, RIAA — if any competent representative happens to enjoy flipping through The Tech — please tell me Bowie is a moronic tool who can’t help what the Superior Gray Coverage Golden Blonde hair dye does to her mental facilities. Please tell me you actually care about the futures of the age demographic that buys most of your music (http://www.riaa.com/news/marketingdata/pdf/2004consumerprofile.pdf). Your evil pirates are people too, people who enjoy music and almost always still purchase it legitimately. Each has an individual life and circumstances that deserve consideration, if not for the sake of empathy for your fellow man, then for the sake of business sense.
Sure, if you commit a crime against someone, you should be held accountable. But I find it horrifying that anyone would single-mindedly and without compassion process people like a meat grinder set to purée. So while the RIAA continues to play the part of shark, I’ll continue to stand behind the glass, tapping away, wondering which of us is on display.
Oh, boo frigging hoo.
Consumerist, one of my favorite sites (and where I found the link to the girl's story), messes up this time, asking:
Does the RIAA’s evil know no bounds? No? Okay, good, didn’t think so.
The point is, unless they've got the wrong girl and she never downloaded a tune, and she randomly called herself a "pirate," it seems the girl stole music. People laughed at me for not doing it, and roll their eyes when I won't go downtown with them to buy knockoff Chanel and Fendi handbags on Santee Alley. (I used to live by the handbag dealers on NY's Canal Street, and I didn't buy them then, either.) Why not? Well, I have copyrights, and a trademark, and I don't want them violated -- how can I have that attitude then willfully violate other people's? I'm always most amazed by fellow writers or creators who run around with knockoff bags. Hellooo?
As for Consumerist's post on this, you can't be against lacking corporate ethics but all for lacking consumer ethics at the same time. And how much money Madonna makes or record companies make is immaterial. The music belongs to them. They can sell it for whatever price they want, and all we can do is choose not to pay for it. And if Miuccia Prada wants to sell mundane nylon bags for hundreds of dollars, and if there are dumbshits out there who will pay her for them, that's her business and theirs. The bags belong to her, she can sell them for any price she can gouge, uh, get, for them.
Musicians should be compensated.
But record companies are the LAST PEOPLE ON EARTH to be lecturing about integrity. For the entire twentieth century, they exploited a minor technologicical condition (a one-to-one match of performances and distribution media) to extract every goddamn possible penny from consumers around the world... ESPECIALLY CHILDREN. For the first four decades of my life, I had to buy 12 or 24 tunes from an artist just to get the one that I actually wanted. And when new media formats became standard, I was given no credit for having already purchsed the works.
Now recordings are priced much more closely to their value. And yet there's more money to be made than ever before. See:
http://tinyurl.com/5m3o6
The difference is that hairdo record company execs and coked-out rock stars aren't getting their free piece of the pie any more.
Fuck 'em. Fuck 'em with a stick.
Crid at April 6, 2006 8:05 AM
Record companies, with the DRM scandals, etc., aren't exactly clean. But stealing is stealing. If somebody mugs my car thief, he still has a right to report the theft of his wallet to the police. Of course, while he's there, I hope they throw him in jail until he starts paying me my restitution again!
Amy Alkon at April 6, 2006 8:07 AM
Stealing is stealing and exploitation is exploitation... For decades, whole generations, they didn't hesitate to leverage their good technological luck. It's just not possible to feel sorry for them now.
My great-grandfather was a gifted and hardworking blacksmith. When Henry Ford destroyed his market, nobody wept for him.
Crid at April 6, 2006 8:25 AM
I work in a cd store, and it may be coincidental, but when the RIAA started pressing charges on civilians I noticed an immediate uptick in sales of cd's. Of course, sales are down now, but that has more to do with the paucity of the product I have to sell. And, as an independent record store, I have no love for the RIAA, because I am the public face to their policies. And I don't have a problem with file sharing. I don't think those pirates would have purchased those songs or albums anyway. So I don't know how they are measuring the "lost" revenue.
Every day I come to work I am staggered by the amount of waste this business generates. And they have tightened their belts at the record companies!
If something has a use, and people value it, it will last. If it is disposable, they will not.
John O at April 6, 2006 9:53 AM
Conceded, stealing is stealing....but the punishment should have rough propotionality to the crime. If the RIAA's fines are really equal to the cost of an MIT education for a song from which they might have made a $5 profit, there's a problem. About as just as punishing a shoplifted pack of gum with loss of a hand.
Speedy
Noel at April 6, 2006 11:24 AM
Lobbyists like the RIAA have corrupted our copyright laws to the point they no longer serve the purpose intended. If I were on Ms. Hunt's jury I'd acquit her.
Counterfit goods are a different issue from filesharing since it involves fraud and is done solely for money.
nash at April 6, 2006 10:33 PM
So, it's OK by you for a Robin Hood to steal, since he isn't in it for the money...
Create something of value and then tell me it's ok for others to exploit your work.
Keith, Indy at April 7, 2006 5:57 AM
Thanks, Keith - precisely my point.
Amy Alkon at April 7, 2006 6:33 AM
> Lobbyists like the RIAA have
> corrupted our copyright laws to
> the point they no longer serve
> the purpose intended
Exactly, this is why it's worrisome to see Apple and Disney hooking up... And Bless the French for telling Jobs to GFH
Crid at April 7, 2006 7:46 AM
Leave a comment