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The Recording Industry Association of America and other bastions of the music cabal decided to flame PC Magazine this week. Why? The organ had the audacity to identify some LimeWire alternatives -- yes, it's not the only P2P file-sharing option, mac. Laughably, the RIAA went on to confuse the mag with our IDG cousins over at PC World. Well, that's an easy mistake if you have no clue about the Internet, eh? In IT Blogwatch, bloggers ask, "What's a magazine?"
Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention Calling the (live) Time Lady in 1950...
Lance Ulanoff tells us what he thinks about being "the music industry's scapegoat":
Limewire ... had been sued multiple times by the music industry ... [which] led to the service shutting down, then being resurrected. ... [We] wrote a service story on Limewire alternatives. ... This act, apparently, did not please the music industry.
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[We] received a letter from music industry execs ... expressing "deep disappointment" with the publication. ... The music industry execs insist the article is encouraging people to steal music. ... Nonsense. ... The story isn't encouraging or discouraging anything.
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The music industry's ... action ... reeks of desperation. ... Change [is] not happening fast enough. ... Nothing will stop technology's inexorable march forward.
Antony Bruno is perhaps more on the RIAA's side:
Irked by an article ... listing a number of alternative P2P services ... a number of music industry executives earlier this month sent ... an angry letter that all but accused the publication of encouraging copyright infringement.
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The harm done to the creative community when people are encouraged to steal our music is immeasurable. ... When you offer a list of alternative P2P sites ... and include more of the serial offenders ... [you] slyly encourage people to steal more music.
Jon Newton notes that the music industry is only drawing extra attention to the piratic options:
Hows this for supreme irony? The RIAA ... recently published chapter-and-verse outlines of exactly where to find alleged piracy purveyors not only online, but also off.
But Jared Newman just laughs at the RIAA's incompetence:
The letter also blames PCMag for an article about the resurrection of Limewire, despite being written for PC World. Apparently the RIAA cant tell the difference. ... The execs argue that PCMag is slyly encouraging people to steal more music by acknowledging the existence of other file-sharing websites.
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The RIAA spends millions of dollars every year on legal costs and recoups hardly any of it. ... And for every PCMag that the music industry tries to bully over an article about peer-to-peer services, theres a PC World thats willing to write about the same topic. I dont see the point.
Mike Masnick agrees, calling the RIAA "Clueless":
Accuracy is not big with the old school music industry, it seems. ... Signers to the letter include ... the RIAA, ASCAP, SoundExchange, BMI, SESAC, NMPA, AFTRA, Harry Fox and the Songwriter's Guild.
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PC World ... is published by IDG -- a totally different company. ... When sending an angry letter ... you would think that maybe one of these ... lobbyist/mouthpieces would think to actually check the sources before mouthing off. ... Given this mistake, it should come as little surprise that the rest of the letter is also full of factually ridiculous claims, such as "job loss" numbers due to "piracy".
Meanwhile, enigmax claims to be the source of the source material:
IDG must be breathing a sigh of relief tonight at escaping the wrath of the industry, but maybe theyll get their admonishment tomorrow.
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We seem to have escaped the naughty chair for writing the original article. ... If youre going to annoy the music industry, its best to do it via proxy.
Richi Jenningsis an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and security. A cross-functional IT geek since 1985, you can follow him as @richi on Twitter, pretend to be richij's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itbw@richij.com.
