Open Letter To The RIAA

[TheMacDaddy]

 Open Letter to RIAA

  To Whom It May Concern in the Recording Industry Association of America

  I have been an avid music collector for most of my life and have purchased several hundreds, thousands, and millions of CDs. This does not even count the millions and millions of vinyl albums and cassette tapes that I got before that. So as you easily can see, I have spent billions of dollars in my lifetime buying your music. I have contributed great financial value to you, and the member organizations you represent. Up until today I have continued to purchase millions of new CDs and legal downloads per year; however, that day has ended and I am now starting to boycott the purchase of any and all music from the record labels you represent.

  As a moral obligation I cannot continue to support a dysfunctional corporate music industry that is abusing their power and the legal system to sue customers in a grossly unjust and unfair manner. I will not spend one more penny from myself or my family to purchase music from any of your member organizations until you stop suing your customers and start providing us with reasonable ways to purchase the music we want, when we want it, and without restrictions on how we can play it.

  In the recent Federal trial where you sued a struggling single mother, Jammie Thomas, for sharing songs on a P2P network, you may have won the legal battle, but you lost the moral ground and public relations war. Please take a second and step back to look at what you have done. Don’t you just feel great making a single mother pay $220,000 for sharing only $24.17 worth of music? Do you really feel proud of yourself? No, you should not. Shame on you, what you have done is clearly not right.

  You have now caused millions of music customers to no longer feel much sympathy for your cause, your organization, and the record labels you represent. Mrs. Thomas is clearly not a pirate who is copying your music by the thousands of units and selling it for profit on the street corner. It is clear she was just simply an enthusiastic music lover who wanted to share her love of music with others. When a penalty becomes this unjust relative to what many view as such a minor crime, most reasonable people view it as being grossly unfair. Two wrongs do not equal a right.

  Instead of looking down upon Mrs. Thomas and condemning her for sharing music, people like myself now feel sympathy for her because the $220,000 penalty is clearly unfair and unjust under the circumstances. It is quite clear that you and your organization have abused your power. Someone has to take a stand and demand you stop your unproductive campaign to keep suing your customers. Today I take that stand. By suing a former customer who you have now financially destroyed, it is likely that she will never spend another penny to buy music from you ever again. Well today myself and thousand and thousands more like me have decided to join her and boycott spending any more money on your music also.

  We look forward to seeing value of your stocks and stockholders continue to erode until you stop your unproductive and unjust campaign and start treating your customers with respect again.

  Sincerely,

  Your Customers

i know i have spread this around
feel free to do the same

[bughunter]

oh stand up and take a bow...............
truely a brillant letter.................

i might add as well that in this particular case the cartel didnt even prove she had downloaded the music in question.........
as was stated the files on the hard drive actually matched the type of music she had legally purchased, she could have used windows media player for example to rip various tracks from cd,s she owned in to a folder, that she then listerned to while on her computer.
after all many of us do exactly this, are we all then guilty of piracy ? as was reported in another post the cartel are trying to susgest that doing this is actually theft..........they and the judicary are forgetting that you are legally entitled to make a backup of any legally purchased music, operating system, dvd etc that you own........the cartel are now trying to say that even doing this is theft, in breech of copywrite what a load of b/s............
and they wonder why over a billion files daily are transfered across the internet............
when will they learn......................

[..Ñøßߥ..]

when will they learn......................

Well actually Bug, their time by their own figures MUST be running out, after all they constantly claim that they are loosing more and more each year because of p2p, with CD sales so far down, and their refusal to offer more modern formats with no restrictions and at a resonable cost, can only mean, their days are numbered. You cannot sustain a business that is dropping in profits yearly, you will either go under or, you will need to start listening to your customers. In some ways their tactic of sueing their customers is not only loosing them the PR battle, but it MUST be costing them alot of cash, i mean, how much in lawyers fees are they now paying? surely way more than they are making in 1 off "offers" to their customers of $3000 and the occasion court awarded settlement, that in many cases the defendent cannot afford anyway. From what i understand Mrs Thomas is hardly in a position to hand over $220,000, they may get $5 month even if they win the appeal, this wont even cover their legal fees, let alone the PR disaster.

[bughunter]

agreed

[ñòóKýçrÕôK]

I was under the impression that the judge in this case reversed his own decision due to finding out that Mrs. Thomas had actually purchased the music she was sharing from the companies they were claiming to represent. Maybe one of you could clear that up forme. Good job Mac and I'll second that from you. I used to buy cds all the time. They've priced them so outragious anymore that you really can't asfford to buy them now. Then it's like I'm like I am constantly saying. Big business all over the world needs to step back and take a real look at themselves. They've duped their customers and the public long enough. They only dictate what we buy and what our dollars will buy because we allow them to do so. How high will they price their music before the whole world just says "Damn that! I can't afford it no more!". Then even more saddening they're sueing the very same people who have made them as rich as they are. It's pathetic. So I guess my message to them would be If you ever valued me as your customer then stop trying so hard to alienate me from you. If you ever wish to have me return to you as your customer then you may wish to do things my way for a change. I put you in that big house and by not purchasing your product and making your pockets fatter I can also remove you from that big house. The choice is yours to make. Do it wisely. Your future depends on us.