Jonathan Bailey over at PlagiarismToday posted his thoughts on the RIAA’s $222,000 win. His post inspired me to write post on it as well.
Lawyers Win
First and foremost - the lawyers are the ONLY people who win major civil lawsuits. They walk away from these things with tens of thousands of dollars of cash in their pocket. Meanwhile the plaintiff looks like a robber and the defendant looks like a criminal.
Spend Money Wisely
Why do the RIAA (the MPAA) refuse to evolve. Are they so pathetic they can’t accept modern society wants free stuff? Why not spend their millions of dollars developing ways to make money online instead of suing for it?
Here I’ll give them a business plan.
- Put their content on websites and offer both free and paid (membership) areas.
- Put up a stat counter.
- Figure out how much traffic they get and get sponsors.
- Get a swimming pool filled with hundred dollar bills.
It isn’t hard at all. If an 18 year old kid can see that surely a bunch of overpaid lawyers can?
Real Life Examples
Look at pro bloggers, Revision3, Digg, Google, Linux developers, etc. They give away stuff for free and they get quite a bit of money as a result.
I’m Entitled To Free Stuff!
While I agree no one is entitled to free stuff, I do think it is a better way of running a content-based business online. People love free content - so give them it!
So Is P2P Sharing Good?
Just so no one thinks I support copyright infringement - I don’t. I think anyone who go around downloading crap illegally should get some sort of punishment, but $222,000 for 12 songs? I’d call that cruel and unusual punishment.
Please subscribe, or else I will cry. Do you really want to make a programmer cry?
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