RIAA

Story in the paper yesterday morning: "UO refuses to ID people accused of music piracy"

I don't think the RIAA is too bright. They had this great deal going on, making tons of money off of a few recording stars. When the world changed, they were not able to adapt. They are struggling to try and hold on to the past and they are failing miserably.

The movie industry adapted. It used to be that when a movie was released on VHS tape, and even on some early DVD's, they wanted like $60 for a copy. Now there is a pretty standard release strategy:

1. Movie is released en-mass to multiplexes around the country. Depending on how well it does it may stay there from a couple of weeks to a couple of months.
2. Then it goes to the second run, discount theaters. Where it runs for another month or so.
3. Then there may be a dead period where you can't get it at all, and
4. Lastly it comes out on DVD for $20.
   

If the recording industry would cut the price on their CD's to $5 they would sell a whole lot more CD's. It costs less than one dollar to make a CD and put it in a box with a label. There is still plenty of room to make money. And the sales volume would more than make up for it. But they are stuck in the past and are unwilling to try and change.

It could be that they have some lawyers who see an opportunity to make a lot of money suing people. On the other hand they are mostly suing people who do not have a lot of money, so they are probably not making any money doing this, it is probably a net cost to the RIAA, which means they are hoping the intimidation factor will work in their favor. But I think that just irritates people.