…yes, I’ve been quiet. Not sure why so here is some interesting bits.
First. The MPAA is out to portray Canada as the big bad of movie and TV piracy. Not sure why but here is a site to the rescue: Techdirt is showing why Canada is not really a pirate den.
Of course as they point out at the end of their post:
Unfortunately, though, most of the press reports still rely on the bogus stats and the bogus story line planted by the MPAA to convince people that the law needs to be changed even further in their favor.
Now onto the RIAA. The RIAA wants us to believe that we should be greatful that we pay what we pay for music CD’s today. In this other Techdirt post, we see how the RIAA is trying to misuse economics to try and mis sell us on how much we are saving on buying music.
Here is the counter argument from the post:
Anyone in the tech industry knows that overtime products get cheaper, not more expensive — but the recording industry wants to pretend that music is non-rivalrous and therefore should increase in cost over time, rather than decrease — even as the actual costs of production, distribution, discovery and promotion have all gotten cheaper over time? Sorry, but economics doesn’t work that way — and it’s safe to say that the RIAA isn’t fooling very many people.
I can’t find the post that I first heard something that is also worth writing about but I want to mention it here anyway.
One thing to remember about the organizations of the MPAA and RIAA is that one of the reasons that they were originally created were to mask the “dirty” work that needed to be done by the companies that formed these organizations. Sony, for instance, belongs to both I believe. Sony wouldn’t want to be associated with sueing your mother or your brother but having these nebulous organizations do it is ok because you won’t let it tarnish the reputation of Sony.
The point of this is that you should let it tarnish the reputation of Sony, Universal, WB (jump in and tell me who belongs to these!), and all the rest that belong to these organizations.