RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter

Let's continue the rant against the RIAA. Here is a very good article about the copyright law by Kurt Hanson. I actually learned a lot that I didn't know about copyright...all of which simply reinforced my absolute disdain of the RIAA and the rest of the suits in the music industry today.

I just want to reinforce the idea that streaming audio is not the same as providing me a "perfect digital copy". It gives me a copy which is about the same quality as I could get from FM radio. And the process of me making a copy of that stream is at least as difficult as it is to record a song from FM radio. Look at most bookshelf stereos: they all have cassette recorders that you can set to record from whatever is being broadcast over the FM radio receiver which is also part of that bookcase system. Now, for me to record a music stream from Pandora or Radio Paradise, I have to be able to intercept that stream and copy it to a hard drive. Because I don't know what song is coming next on the stream, either I copy the whole stream, a process that takes up a lot of memory space, and is not all that convenient to pick individual songs out of, or I jump in a couple seconds into the song (oops, which makes it, de facto, an "imperfect" copy.

So, rather than go through all that hassle...and because recording music streams takes up a whole lot of time...I send my favorite streaming station Radio Paradise a set quarterly donation, and I listen with a clear conscience. If, like recently with James McMurtry, I find an artist whom I really like, I go out and buy a CD to "support" that artist (although I know that 99% of what I paid for that CD goes to people other than the creators of that music.)

So, to re-emphasize my stand on this, I have stopped purchasing music except from websites run by the artist themselves. If I see any instance of RIAA or record label involvement, I don't buy. Period. Screw them all. I have a couple hundred hours of music available to me, either through CDs I own or through CDs that friends lend me...which I will copy. I will not purchase any new music if that purchase benefits either the RIAA or the big 4 music manufacturers. I will listen to streaming music over the Internet, and, when the RIAA closes down all the domestic streams, I will listen to pirate streams from overseas. I won't copy these streams, because that is to fucking much trouble...but I will have 'em playing in the background as I go about my life...Personally, I would encourage every resident of the United States to do the same.