No wonder the RIAA is America’s most-hated company
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a US trade group comprising major companies like record labels and distributors. The companies that make up the RIAA control about 90% of the US music industry. The RIAA is one of the most dedicated opponents of filesharing, often targeting P2P filesharing programs like Limewire.
Despite the RIAA’s futile drive to bring users of filesharing software to “justice”, programs like Ares get bigger each day. Perhaps the 20,000 or so lawsuits brought up by the group are part of the reason why the RIAA was named “Worst Company in America 2007″ earlier this year.
Thirty-two companies were up for the title and more than 100,000 people voted in the poll conducted by The Consumerist. The RIAA beat stiff opposition from the likes of Wal-Mart, McDonalds and Microsoft. The RIAA is even more hated than last year’s winner, Halliburton.
The message is clear that Americans have not taken kindly to the music industry’s lashing out at filesharers. Only time will tell if the RIAA will ever come to its senses and stop suing people for sharing music on the Internet. The RIAA represents the interests of the music-industry business and nothing else — it does not stand for the rights of music fans.
At the moment there is an educational bill in the House of Representatives that, if passed, would turn US colleges and universities into copyright police forces to prevent the use of P2P filesharing. Obviously, the RIAA is all over this bill. If passed, universities who do not uphold the bill risk losing financial aid.
It’s clear why the RIAA is America’s most-hated company. Students have enough to worry about — like their education for one thing.
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anthony 01Dec07
who do these people think they are? We have every right to file share music we already own because we bought it. If we want to share our files between friends we have every right to do so.And will continue to do so. so fuck you warner, and all you itune scam sites. and sell-out napster. we will continue to file share and there’s not a fucking thing you can do about it.