So, now the RIAA is saying that it's illegal for consumers to copy legally-purchased CD's onto their computers, particularly if placed in a "shared folder" on their computers, and they are pursuing lawsuits against their own customers. And if I understand what I read correctly, they gained knowledge of the content of customers' shared folders by using a third-party service that basically spies on said customers!!

The RIAA likes to point its finger and rant and rave at people about breaking the law and infringing its copyrights, yet the recording industry got away with breaking the law for years in the payola scandal. They had illegal "understandings" with broadcasters that prevented radio stations from playing any music that did not come from one of the major record labels, unfairly freezing out independent labels and artists, and limiting the range and type of music all of us were able to be exposed to. They did this even though to do so was illegal. And at their hearing before the FCC last year, the FCC basically let them get away with their past breaking of the law without heavy fines as long as they agreed to cease the practice and that broadcasters agree to dedicate a certain percentage of airtime to indendent labels and artists. (Of course, they immediately started trying to find loopholes to get around their promise to broadcast independent recordings.)

The recording industry has illegally and to all of our detriments been the sole decider of what music we could be exposed to based solely on their own greedy business model, and has gotten away with ILLEGALLY paying radio stations to only play music from major labels for years. In my opinion, they have no right to point their finger at anyone else about breaking the law, particularly their own customers! What the RIAA and the major record labels have done is destroy their own industry with their own greed and ignorance. They should be GRATEFUL that anyone would want to share the crap they produce. We should be suing them for polluting our airwaves with their limited choice of music produced by artists who have been stripped from ever owning their own music in their own lifetimes and paying said artists a minute percentage of the profits gained from the sale of their music.

Fortunately for music lovers, the independent music scene is alive, well and thriving. Independent artists may not make the money record industry artists do (particularly since they have been illegally thwarted from gaining exposure for years), but they maintain ownership and control of their own music and freely produce music without having some corporate greedmonger thwart their creativity. And independent artists have direct contact with their fans without the unnecessary middleman of the recording industry in the middle. Thanks to today's technology, musicians can record, produce and expose their music to fans without breaking the bank. So, although the RIAA may be destroying its own industry, it is not destroying music. No, music can only get better at this point.