Thursday, September 26 2002

Just read this article on news.com. It really disappoints me that so many artists fall for the stupidities and lies that RIAA and related are spreading.

According to the article, RIAA CEO Hilary Rosen says Illegally downloading is stealing, and it's against the law plain and simple. Is it really? I know that sharing music with your closest friends is not a crime, at least in Sweden it isn't. What is and perhaps should be forbidden however is selling copies, which is really the point of a copyright. Right?

Another quote from the article: CD sales have been declining in recent years, a trend that's coincided with both the rise of file swapping and a dismal economy.

I would say that the high pricing on music CDs today is the main cause of the declining sales. Lower the prices and people will start buying again. If the sales have really declined that is. I've heard from several sources that CD sales have actually gone up. So who's lying?

When Napster was first released a few years ago my CD purchase rate went up like never before. Napster was a great utility for finding new music, but the music downloaded was seldom a substitute for the real thing. Napster was good, free advertising.