Help me write a persuasive speech, forumites.

[Lysander]

Okay, so I want to do my persuasive speech in my public speaking class on why the public should not pay for CDs produced by the RIAA, and give out a laundry list of their grevances, including pricefixing, badly-broken DRM, and their ludite stance on internet distribution (especially including their habbit of suing anyone andeveryone who won't fight back while ignoring the major music pirates.) What i'm looking for is actual documented statstics. Like, the price of cassettes VS. that of CDs, a list of hte people the RIAA has sued. That kidn of thing. Could anyone help me with that? I'd appreciate ti a lot.

[KM]

the best to help you out there would be ghostship, and he's not around atm...

all i can suggest is reading the news section about some of the higher profile RIAA crimes, might also want to look at this article a little old (2002) but very well written and has some good statistics

[GnarlySnarly]

Okay, so I want to do my persuasive speech in my public speaking class on why the public should not pay for CDs produced by the RIAA, and give out a laundry list of their grevances, including pricefixing, badly-broken DRM, and their ludite stance on internet distribution (especially including their habbit of suing anyone andeveryone who won't fight back while ignoring the major music pirates.) What i'm looking for is actual documented statstics. Like, the price of cassettes VS. that of CDs, a list of hte people the RIAA has sued. That kidn of thing. Could anyone help me with that? I'd appreciate ti a lot.

You should not buy RIAA because they abuse the artists.  That alone is reason enough to boycott all of the artists that stay with them.  Artists that care about their fans will go indy or with a fan-friendly publisher.  Computers and the internet now make the big 'studios' unneeded.  Their protected racket is falling apart and nothing they do can save it.  Boycott them and they are history.  Support struggling, starving indy artists.  There are millions to choose from.

You omit what I think is their most dispicable practice, coercing/tricking naive artists to sign over rights to their songs, music and even their name for their blue sky promises and a lottery ticket in their rigged game that maybe they might 'hit it big' - which is false for 99.8% of those they sign.  They get zip and lose rights to their own words.

They don't have "clean hands", they are not protecting artists interests, they never have.  They are merely trying to protect their ill-gotten hoard of 'property rights'.

http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/
bands that allow taping: http://btat.wagnerone.com/
http://www.respect-the-music.com/index.html.en
some indy artists: http://www.ebsqart.com/

Janice Ian prays for people to share her songs, and freaks out the RIAA:
http://www.janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.html


File-Sharing Case Worries Indie Artists
***
Study: Musicians Dig the Net
***
Survey shows most musicians oppose RIAA's lawsuits
***
File-Sharing No Threat to Music Sales
http://wiki.morpheus.com/~p2punited/


"Artists Break With Industry on File Sharing
Some Musicians Say Web Services Can Be Valuable Means of Distribution"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61254-2005Feb28.html

the scams:
http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2003/09/12/how-record-labels-exploit-bands/
http://www.rapcoalition.org/production_deals_suck.htm
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/vol17/issue41/music.labels.html
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Music/musiclaw.html
http://www.negativland.com/albini.html
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/blog/284
http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2006/03/29/63126.html
Confessions of a Record Producer
- http://www.barryrudolph.com/newtoys/toys/miller.html




google may not be your friend [as they tend to spy on you and turn records of your browsing over to police types] but it will find lits of links, for the risk.

[Lysander]

Just for the record, I still have until Monday to give the speech.

[Fun Guest]

I wonder how the speech went. Did ya make an A+?