RIAA, This Is Earth, Please Come In!

ccnull writes "You might remember George Ziemann as the musician who found his own music banned from eBay because it was recorded on CD-R. Now he's back with a new rant about the RIAA's statistics, which blame piracy for the dire condition of the music industry. What's to blame? Price hikes and fewer titles. The latest rant (including analysis of the RIAA's own data) is mainly circulating by email, here's a readable link. (As an interesting side note, Ziemann says that songs are really just ads for CDs, and thus should be freely traded.)"

Comments

Idiot moderators!

[jonr]

Take a look at that link before you moderate, you idiot!
J.

I do believe slashdotters are finally waking up

[almound]

****Here's what I wrote a few centuries back (11/02):

Reading the replies here, I begin to see now why the tech bust hasn't been over long ago. If you let the company use you like a whore, you will be treated like the whore that you are and you shouldn't expect any better treatment. Unfortunately, the replies to this inquiry confirm that some people don't mind being scabs (i.e. temp workers brought in to obviate the need to hire workers full-time).

Consulting is one thing, but I draw the line when the client is the company that layed me off in the first place ... then discover that they really do need somebody around to actually do the work (an indian, not a chief). And as for consulting, well, the fees are pretty stiff.

We made a ton of money back during the 90's. Use the freedom that that doe gives you to resist this kind of exploitation. I do.

Otherwise, it will just be more of the same old, same old. You can count on it. Stop being a whore and think like a responsible human being. Make the companies understand that there are consequences for their actions. That when they hire you, it is a partnership which requires some responsibility to you on their part.

Stop acting like a co-dependent spouse (you know ... "battered spouse" syndrome). Have a little self-respect, otherwise the tech industry will never develop into a profession, on a par with other engineers and architects.

****But my words were all in vain ... and now those who wouldn't listen are chiming in, agreeing with me when I wrote (02/03):

The honeymoon is over, people. Unfortunately, I am coming to the realization that the battle is lost already.

...

I was a fairly well-paid computer professional from 1994 through 2000. But a sickness overtook the computer industry. It is a sickness imposed by forces which during the same time period tried to impose similar types of maladies on the health care and legal professions. Unfortunately, the computer industry (being in its infancy) was more susceptible than the others. Without strong professional organization and fraught by endemic sabotage by mega-corporations from within, the computer industry was doomed to succumb.

Currently, I am enrolled in a mathematics course of study which will degree me in Statistics, and am changing my profession out of the computer technology field altogether. For those still brave enough to tough it out under the current conditions:

May God have mercy on your souls.

****Read 'em and weep, people. Or else, organize. But you're too cool to be doing that. So, go code yerself an egg.

However, you may still be asleep.

[teamhasnoi]

I think you posted this in the wrong thread. ;)