Five Years Into Suing Fans, RIAA's Strategy Has Failed
Found on Techdirt on Friday, 03 October 2008
The summary? Almost every move the RIAA has made in its legal campaign has backfired.
All that's done is turn many more people against the RIAA, while continuing to educate them that file sharing exists. In fact, many more people engage in file sharing now than five years ago when the campaign started.
About the only "success" of the strategy is that it's turned into something of a cash generator for the RIAA, by frightening people, with strong legal language around flimsy evidence, into paying "presettlements" to avoid being sued. It's like a protection racket from organized crime. Oh yeah, it's worth noting that the musicians don't actually see any of that money.
It's also worth mentioning that those who decided to use officially approved sources face ridiculous problems, reaching from inoperability over limitations and restrictions to plain cut-offs (as proven by Walmart). On the other hand, those who pirated music and movies enjoy full freedom. That's the problem the industry is facing: trying to convince customers that freedom is bad.