Neil Wise is a senior majoring in economics. He can be contacted at [email protected].When I first glanced at the headline of the Tuesday [Jan. 15] opinion piece entitled, “RIAA suits show bad ethics,” [by Mike Dedwylder] I thought that you were on to something. By the time I was a paragraph deep into it I was hoping that you would tell us at the end that you were just kidding. But alas, I realized you were indeed serious. So let us take a look at some of the jewels in this article: “The Recording Industry Association of America missed that memo, as it continues to cling to an outdated business model.”
While acknowledging that digital music is surely the way of the future, you simply cannot leave out the facts.
According to an AP article published less than two weeks ago, digital albums still only accounted for 10 percent of total album sales, and the industry sold over half a billion of your “outdated” non-digital records. I would cling to that as well.
“So why are easily scratched, easily lost pieces of plastic still seen as the highest form of musical media to the RIAA when the rest of the world has moved on?”
For the first part of this rhetorical question, see above point. As for the latter, if by rest of the world you mean the percentage of Americans and Western Europeans that have portable mp3 players (which undoubtedly is a very small number in world terms), then your point is taken. Sarcasm off.
“Why would such a profitable industry resort to taking legal action against its own clients?”
Hmm … because it’s illegal? Ding. Ding. Ding.
“I don’t think the real reason behind all this is money.”
Well that statement just basically flies in the face of several centuries of economic theory.
Of course it’s about money. All business is.
The fact of the matter is that illegal file sharing is exactly that. Have I done it before? Sure. Was I breaking the law? Yes.
Artists, such as Radiohead whom you mentioned, do want their artistic property spread, no doubt. But they want it done legally, so they may collect the rewards for their work. Downloading their album free on Lime Wire does not somehow help them out in the long run.
I am not a staunch record industry supporter or anything like that, but I realize that this is business and it must be done legally.
Would you mind designing my first home for free?