The MPAA and RIAA seem to be on the frontpage of Digg at least every week, lawsuits in hand. Most recently for the RIAA it has been suing sites where users post guitar tablature, and now the MPAA is suing a small company that sells iPods pre-loaded with DVD movies (Of course you should have to buy one copy of a movie on DVD and a separate copy for your iPod, what were you thinking?!).
In their ruthless search for money, they are exploiting the law, and stifling innovation. What I am failing to see is the upside. How much money does the music industry stand to make from sheet music sales to those who would otherwise visit tablature sites? How many people is the RIAA going to keep from buying their music by making it DRM’ed so badly it is almost unusable? Why would the MPAA want to put a company out of business that is purchasing its product and contributing to its bottom line?
Big media is not a free market economy, the oligopolistic actions of these few companies are determining where progress will be made in technology in their sector, but they want to keep us in the past. In the past profits are high, music is less ubiquitous, and it is much harder to copy in a way that sounds good. In the past you can’t share clips of their content without paying (e.g. YouTube, Embedded MySpace music players, etc.)
The music industry survived people copying tapes and vcr movies, they thrived, but somehow in their eyes the digital age is different. By making their content harder to use they are making it harder to purchase, they are then turning around and calling their customers pirates. This is extremely misguided.
We are seeing the same thing with the telecommunications giants and Net Neutrality, or even with phone operators in the mobile space.
My question is how can we make this more of a free market economy which encourages and rewards innovation and change? Is it time for the government to step in? This pattern of abuse cannot continue.
[…] I just read a post called Big Media Doesn’t Get It that communicated my thoughts so well that there is no need for me to rehash them. There seems to be a general mood about the RIAA and MPAA - and it’s not a good one. It amazes me, that we, the customers, the very reason that these companies have the money to manipulate the law in a way that lets them play king of the music hill, are the last people that they are interested in listening to. How disgusting is it to see creativity and innovation slowed in the name of preserving the good old days? Thanks for the inspired post Jamie Quint. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]
Dear RIAA and MPAA at 8trk
June 3rd, 2007