highfireDANGER!

incendiary wit from a perpetually curious techfemme... and the crap I find on the interwebs.

moby for the lulz on the not so lulz RIAA v. jammie thomas lawsuit.

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the following is an excerpt from moby's journal:
last week a woman named jammie(or maybe it's jamie?)*thomas was found guilty of illegally downloading music and fined $220,000.
she's a single mother making $36,000 and she's being fined $220,000 for downloading a few dozen songs??
and this is how the record companies are trying to get people on their side?
so let's see, republicans oppose health care for poor and middle class children, and the record companies sue single mothers for file-sharing...
who exactly is giving the republicans and the record companies advice?
beelzebub?
how about a punishment that fits the crime?
this woman's crime was downloading music.
so maybe her punishment should be to pay $1 for every song she illegally downloaded?
which would lead to a fine of around $40?
i understand that the record labels are all suffering, but this is not the way to endear themselves to the general public...
i just feel badly for this poor woman, that she's a single mom on limited income and suddenly she's faced with high legal bills and a potentially disastrous settlement.
were the record company representatives all wearing black top hats and twiddlling their long, black, waxy mustaches when the verdict was reached?**
file sharing is hurting the record companies, there's no doubt about that.
but sueing a single mom who's making $36,000 a year for $220,000 is not the answer to the record companies woes.

-moby

* it's seriously jammie.
** my emphasis, for the lulz.

moby makes a salient point:
how is this, at all,
going to make people want to have any relationship
with record companies aka the riaa?
huge conglomerates suing your mom
for money she doesn't have?
very un-lulz
very beelzebubz
being that the punishment
doesn't seem to fit the crime
it's bad for a business
that's already mid-floosh

(and come on, did they pick her as their flagship case
partly because of her name?
so they could make jokes like
"i guess she's not jammin' now!"
whilst engaging in another fit
of raucous puppy kicking?)

1 comments:

9.10.07 Dissident said...

makes the puppy very sad... :o(