Re: [ARSCLIST] Is The Record Shop Dead?

[Dismuke <dismukemail@xxxxxxxxx>]

> 
> Things don't get better or worse, they evolve.  So
> must we all.
> 
> Steve Smolian


If the irrational Luddites at the RIAA had grasped the
wisdom of the above words a decade ago, they, and
everybody else, would be far better off today.  And
they would not likely be using their bought and paid
for political pull to force Internet radio off the air
in order to prop up their lock on lowest common
denominator FM drivel.  And we would not have had an
entire generation of young adults who wouldn't for a
moment even consider stealing a stick of gum but think
nothing about stealing intellectual property.  

When confronted with the notion put out by the RIAA
that the world ought to forever stick with old,
outdated technologies and must not take advantage of
the many benefits of the new - well, since the only
legal weapon the RIAA had to enforce such an obviously
absurd notion was their legacy marketplace dominance
made possible by the limitations of the old technology
and the power of their copyrights, it was the very
notion of copyrights that took the credibility hit. 
And that is a very bad thing which will have
consequences that we will have to deal with for a long
them.

Whether it is by intention or not, the RIAA's
self-destructive, irrational behavior is having the
same effects as if they had been engaged in a
deliberate scorched earth policy.  They are dragging a
whole lot of people down with them who, unlike them,
are innocent.

And had they been rational enough to have had the
mindset that Steve articulated things would be so much
better today.  Here's hoping for their collapse sooner
rather than later.