samboct
Posts: 1817
Joined: 1/17/2007 Status: offline
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This industry has been sowing the seeds for its downfall for years. I'm old enough to remember when they began putting on the jackets of vinyl LPs their slogan- "Home taping is killing the recording industry." But the intransigence of this industry is what created the home taping market. There were two good reasons to go to taping your own vinyl- 1) vinyl didn't last long when played repeatedly- it developed scratches, pops, etc. So some folks decided that taping a favorite album- and then listening to the tape made more sense. When the tape crapped out- just pull the vinyl out and make another copy. 2) The tapes they sold sucked. They used cheap quality tape that didn't last long, and didn't sound as good as the home version- not by a long shot. So what could you do if you had a good tape deck in a car and wanted decent sound? You had to make your own. Fast forward to today. Buy a CD and what happens when it craps out? I've bought a bunch of CDs in my life, and several of them have developed defects. Try and contact a label such as Capitol Records to get it replaced? Good luck- their website doesn't allow you to contact them. Why shouldn't you be able to get a replacement CD for a nominal sum- like a buck or two? After all, you've purchased the rights to listen to the music, if the media is defective it should be replaced for the cost of the media (or considered customer support which is what any responsible industry would do). If you have to purchase the CD again- then you've paid for the rights to listen to the music TWICE. The problem with this industry's claim that you're violating copyright is that the system only works in their favor. If you buy a shirt- then the shirt mfg doesn't care who wears the shirt or if you sell it again. When it wears out- you buy another. That's how the RIAA views their media-so where do they get off saying that they want their intellectual property (IP) safeguarded? You can't buy IP twice-or multiple times- you either have the rights to listen to it, or you don't. As far as I'm concerned the RIAA are thieves- not in an abstract sense that they've mistreated the artists that provide their livelihood- but they've stolen from their customers by charging twice for selling them the same rights that were purchased the first time (assuming anybody else has ever replaced a CD, vinyl, or tape that's ever crapped out.) That their lawyers are letting them get away with this is ridiculous-but goes to show that a rich company can still afford snazzier lawyers than the poor consumer. If anybody wants to set up a class action lawsuit- I'm in. Sam
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