It's not like I don't have enough on my mind without having to deal with these fair-use-killing, freedom-squelching, technology-stifling small-minded greedy oligarchs.
The chilling and threatening litigation continues. I'll comment on it specifically one of these days but I wish to go on record now protesting the general absurdity.
In addition to stifling all sorts of freedoms and innovations, it's abhorrent the way they try to claim the moral high ground on the issue of file sharing. I got in an argument with one of my best friends last night, and I'm on the verge of picking a fight with another musician I've admired for nearly 20 years because although the RIAA doesn't serve their interests, they essentially buy into the RIAA's rhetoric equating file sharing with piracy.
It isn't. That association is wrong and oversimplistic. I think file sharing is the Kindergarten principle simply expanded: that it's good to share. (Although this too is oversimplified. My thoughts on it are more robust but for the moment I will linger on this particular aspect.) My friend did raise an interesting point, wondering if it's one thing to share with friends and another to share with strangers on such a wide scale. It's worth thinking about, but I don't think a negative answer to that question should still impugn file sharing, if for no other reason than by banning file sharing and its technology, you also ban myriad legitimate uses, both actual and future, in an unaccepatable way that threatens others' freedom of expression. Not all files shared on P2P systems are copyrighted by entities unwilling to have them shared, but destroying the technology at the behest of those who are unwilling also destroys the avenue for other people who would wish to have their work disseminated through that technological vehicle. And by work, it's not just music or MP3s: pictures, other sound technology, video, documents... file sharing is file sharing. All sorts of files - and encapsulated in them, all sorts of ideas - can be shared. The impact of shutting down the alleged "copyright-infringing" tools means that much more is destroyed.
At some point I will be inclined to elaborate further. Right now I want to throw a tantrum at the persistent destructive litigious stupidity of the RIAA, and I mourn the fact that a huge rift is opening up between me and others I care about over this issue. This type of battle for these types of threatened freedoms is what I want to devote my life to. I hope I don't have to lose people who mean a lot to me in the process.
In the meantime, for a humor break, here's a funny comment on Slashdot today regarding the RIAA's legal activities.