The recording industry won a key fight Thursday against illegal music downloading when a federal jury found a Minnesota woman shared copyrighted music online and levied $222,000 in damages against her.
I don't really have all that much sympathy for the giant record companies. Basically, my feeling is that this is comeuppance or karma payback for all the artists they have exploited/financially bitch slapped over countless years.
While it's a victory for them, I see it as a hollow victory. To put it into college football parlance (hey, why not), it's like a Division 1-AA team scoring a touchdown against the third-string players during the fourth quarter when they are already down 50 points. The business model the record companies have followed since who knows when is obsolete, and rather than innovate and look forward, they have chosen the route of suing their potential customers. Wow... brilliant. Burning bridges, much?
As for me, I make it a point to purchase music from new artists, as they are most likely broke. It's a tiny percentage of acts that ever make huge money, and if they are lucky enough to have been signed by a label, they are in a huge amount of debt before the record even comes out. If they have a decent agent, they get a 20% royalty rate from each album sale. However, from that 20%, they have to pay back all the recording costs, video production, touring, etc. The cards are completely stacked against them.
Record companies protecting the rights of artists? Bullshit. That's just spin. These are corporations that are simply protecting an outmoded business model that has no future.
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