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EMI May Cut Funding To RIAA, IFPI
Teen Bainwolf notes a report that Big Four record label EMI, which is under new ownership, is considering a big cut in its funding for the IFPI and RIAA. Each of the labels reportedly contributed over $132 million per year to fund industry trade groups, and EMI apparently believes that money could be better spent elsewhere. "One of the chief activities of the RIAA is coordinating the Big Four labels' legal campaign, and those thousands of lawsuits have done nothing but generate ill will from record fans, while costing the labels millions of dollars and doing little (if anything) to actually reduce the amount of file-sharing going on."
... But before anybody declares victory, let me point out that things could change in a heartbeat as this decision (if you can call it that as they are only considering it) could change if the RIAA exerts some mob like pressure on EMI. Also, the fact that they went public with this makes me think it's a PR shell game rather than something material in nature. Still, these are the guys who hopped onto the DRM free bandwagon first, so maybe there's something to it?
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.