Students Respond to RIAA Lawsuits

As I reported last week, the Recording Industry Association of America sued some 400 or so students at 18 different colleges and universities around the country on Wednesday, April 12. Now that the news has had time to sink in, the backlash has begun. What could the RIAA expect? After all, they are targetting already poor college students, making them the example to all who download illegally of what might happen to them if they get caught, too. The overwhelming opinion is, of course, that the RIAA was wrong to file the lawsuits, but the reasoning behind this might surprise you. What frustrates students isn't that they got caught, it's that the RIAA is, in essence, screwing itself over.

Take, for example, a column from the opinion page of yesterday's Harvard Crimson. The column explains in very simple terms that the RIAA has the wrong idea of music downloading and that the association is "reacting to symptoms of a larger disease that it has yet to cure, largely because they haven’t realized that it isn’t a disease at all." It seems painfully obvious that the RIAA should, rather than come down harshly upon the art of file sharing, embrace the idea and use it to the advantage of everyone in the industry. I don't know why they haven't gotten the idea yet. They're taking strides, I'll give them that, but lawsuits like these are only setbacks.

An article in The Tartan, the school newspaper for Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, looks at the situation from a different approach, blaming the RIAA's attempts to crack down on illegal file sharing for encouraging students to find other means of downloading. "Sure, the RIAA is a mighty organization," writes columnist Marshall Roy, "and maybe it can successfully wrest tuition money from 450 unsuspecting collegiate evil-doers, but it sure won’t make any friends in the process. All it will do is inspire computer geniuses (with which CMU is infested) to devise brilliant new ways of listening to their favorite songs for free." Roy goes on to report that the RIAA made just as much money in 2004 as it did ten years ago. "Did it ever occur to the RIAA that perhaps the 2000–2003 sales slump, which it whines was due to the advent of Napster and music downloading, was perhaps the work of the general economic recession that characterized the first few years of the 21st century?" Just something to think about.

A letter from Kevin Khandjian to Dartmouth's The Dartmouth (how ironic) speaks as the voice of reason from the independent music industry, calling to mind the fact that independent music is probably hurt the most by the RIAA crack down.

Which is why I don't feel the least bit guilty when I download an album that I know I can't get anywhere near here. It's not just a matter of convenience, it's a matter of availability and affordability. It's also about discovering new music. Without file sharing, I don't know what kind of crap music I would be listening to right now. I've been very fortunate to have been able to use music downloading to my advantage. How else would I have been able to find Her Space Holiday or Boards of Canada or even Doves and The Arcade Fire? I don't see them when I go through the music section of Best Buy, and if I did, I'd pass them right by because I wouldn't know who they are. Let's face the facts. File sharing, although illegal, is beneficial for the people who really count on people coming to shows and buying merch because it gets their names out. It's a really simple concept.

The names of the students who are being sued have not been released yet, but I will continue to update as details begin to surface.

In other news...

Poor poor Oasis. Nothing ever goes right for them. First they herald their new album as life-changing, and then their first single is leaked and it's less than impressive, and then Bloc Party disses them... what next? Oh... the whole album was leaked. I'm looking for it as we speak. Expect it to be rotating through the mp3 blogs by the end of the week. Meanwhile, check on eBay and you might be able to buy a burnt copy of the album.

If you were one of the people confused by Coldplay's album artwork for X&Y, you're in luck, because the code has been cracked. The design was created using a code known as "Baudot". Read the article to find out what that means. It's too much to summarize.

Let's summarize what's been going on in the Fiona Apple saga. Fiona recorded a new album, Extraordinary Machines, in 2003, but Epic wouldn't release it because it didn't think the album would be very successful since there aren't any stand-out tracks. I can't say for sure whether they were right about that or not since I haven't listened to the album, but an article from the online magazine Slate suggests that maybe they weren't wrong when they decided not to release it. This notion is based on the number of people currently sharing the album, which was leaked for the most part in January of this year. Compared to the numbers for other albums, which tend to peak in the millions, Extraordinary Machines topped out at a measly 50,000 people sharing the album. There may be reasons for this, such as a lack of knowledge or a smaller listening audience since it's been years since we've heard anything from her. Evidence does suggest, however, that Epic might have done the right thing after all. Backlash from Fiona's fans has changed the heart of the record label, and it now appears that there is a chance the album will be released. Just don't expect it to be a big seller.

To further my obsession with Doves, Mean Street spoke recently with drummer Andy Williams. He discusses the reasoning and inspiration for Some Cities, which I find very informative. Check it out.

While the RIAA is trying to make file sharing an inconvenience, Ian Clarke is doing just the opposite. The inventor of Freenet, Clarke has created what he calls Indy, the Google of independent music. Simply download the application and begin to search the web. I'm going to try it out, and I'll let you know what I think next time.

Upcoming Columbus Shows

4.19 - M. Ward (solo) w/ Norfolk & Western and DeVotchKa - Little Brothers
4.20 - m83 w/ Ulrich Schlauss (feat. the Moog documentary prior to performance) - The Mershon Black Box
4.21 - Clem Snide w/ The Sure Things, Langhorne Slim and Marbles - Little Brothers
4.21 - Damon and Naomi w/ The Black Swans and Brian Straw - High Five
4.26 - House of Heroes w/ New Republic - Little Brothers
4.27 - Mute Math w/ Mat Kearney - Little Brothers
4.27 - MTU Campus Invasion feat. Muse w/ Razorlight - Promowest Pavilion
5.04 - The Wedding Present w/ The Organ and Tiara - Little Brothers
5.04 - Electric Six w/ VHS or Beta - Skully's
5.07 - The Decemberists w/ Willy Mason - Little Brothers
5.08 - The Books - Wexner Center
5.13 - Mae w/ The Academy Is... and Jamison Parker - Little Brothers
5.15 - Andrew Bird w/ Antenna - Little Brothers
5.17 - Stereo Total w/ Les Georges Leningrad - Little Brothers
5.27 - The Killers w/ Hot Hot Heat - Promowest Pavilion
6.08 - Modest Mouse - Promowest Pavilion
6.13 - Iron and Wine - The Newport

Daily Downloads
brought to you by regnyouth

The Arcade Fire - Funeral (link, mp3s)
The Arcade Fire - Live on KRCW 2 (links, rars, password: sth)
The Matthew Good Band - The Audio of Being 2 3 (links, zips)
Beck - Mellow Gold 2 3 4 (links, rars)
Sufjan Stevens - Live at SXSW 2 (links, rars)