Rodent Regatta

Dan Gillmor points at the flood of subpoenas coming from the RIAA and its members. They want to find people who might be guilty of violating the copyright laws of the USA.

Dan’s not happy about the RIAA’s insistence that the law be enforced. Then, in an amazing turnabout, the end of his entry suggests doing business with companies that are not members of RIAA or doing business with artists directly.

I could so easily be mistaken, but here’s what I believe to be true. We have a copyright law in this country that protects the creative work of artists and those they designate to produce, promote and market their music. If that law needs to be altered we have a process for doing that.

If someone wants to produce creative works which are not protected by copyright law, they can do that.

I don’t like legal wrangling of any sort. I don’t like fine print. It’s terribly unsettling that we’ve become a nation of endless laws, litigation and feuding. Yet, the RIAA can use the course they’ve chosen. We can then decide – each one on his own – to patronize members of RIAA or not. I hope that’s what Dan is suggesting.