p2pnet - rss feed: Merry non-RIAA Christmas!
p2p news / p2pnet: It’s almost that time of year again – you know, December, the supposed season of good will and the time a lot of people celebrate Christmas by giving presents to each other.
But, “Gift-giving has gotten harder since the Recording Industry Association of America came to town,” observe the folks at FreeCulture.org.
“The cartel of the biggest record labels has made a name for itself by suing families for downloading music, lobbying for massive expansions in copyright control, and including nasty DRM that limits fair use rights on their CDs. It’s hard to support an industry which treats its customers like that!”
So what do you do? No worries.
“Luckily, not all record labels are members of the RIAA,” FreeCulture points out. “A proud handful hold out, refusing to join in the cartel’s backwards way of doing business. Sites like riaaradar.com help you sort the wheat from the chaff.”
So Just Say No to the RIAA and with that in mind, the organization has compiled a list of RIAA-free CDs to get you started.
* Gavin’s list (indie pop/rock, electronic) - PDF
* Karen’s list (indie, blues, random) - PDF (soon)
* Dan’s list (well, duh, it’s indie)
* Jordan’s list (1990s mainstream artists who moved to indie labels)
* Eric’s list (thrash, crust, grind, hardcore)
“There’s lots of great Creative Commons-licensed music, too!” – says the site, adding:
“Note: The CDs on these lists were released on record labels that are not RIAA members. The artists may have released other CDs on RIAA labels; in some cases, the same CD may have been re-released on by an RIAA member. Furthermore, some independent labels use RIAA distributors.
These holiday gift guides are meant to be practical, not puritanical. But by focusing your purchasing power on non-RIAA members, you can weaken the RIAA and encourage other companies to stop doing business with them unless they change their ways.
Also read:-
FreeCulture.org - A holiday gift guide for conscientious music-lovers, November 24, 2005
November 25th, 2005 at 11:36 pm
I strongly support this idea of nonfunding for the cartels. They don’t have the only game in town, even though that is the picture they wish to project to purchasers. They can’t even give proper respect to their customers, calling them consumers instead of what they really are; the life blood of a corporation. It is to the point that consumers are what they treat their customers as also.
Don’t believe me? Go try to return one of these cds for your money back from the major label. Maybe the store you bought it at might refund your money as they realise that customer goodwill may well be a purchase in the future. Or just look at what Sony has done and you get the idea real quickly that protectism at the cost of customer satisfaction is the theme of the day.
That’s no way to run a business where each and every customer is considered a thief from the get go and called so. Thank you but no thanks is what I say to the cartels. You don’t have anything I want.
November 26th, 2005 at 12:40 pm
“Thank[s] but no thanks … You don’t have anything I want.”
Well said.
I think it is important that people realize that there is nothing the labels (or Hollywood) won’t stoop to. In the EU these people are trying to hijack legislation that’s been proposed to help defend the citizens of EU nations against terrorism. Seriously - you read that right.
Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures. With Islamic terrorism on the rise and international jihadis a painful reality (Twin Towers, Bali, London buses, etc., etc.) maybe ISPs should keep records, and maybe the police should be able to look at them (with a court order). But privacy and freedom should not be infringed on lightly, and it is disgusting that semi-criminal organizations like Sony BMG should attempt to piggy back on such a grave and solemn necessity.
The BBC, reporting this affair, says:
“If they cannot come up with a business model which allows them to make profits without criminalising their customers, trampling over our civil liberties or installing malware on our computers then they do not deserve to stay in business, and new ways for artists to reach the public will have to emerge.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4469886.stm