Copyright Terrorism. As Lane Becker wrote on Meg’s weblog, Valenti and his cronies are fighting “a terrorist war on the most important [Aaron Swartz: The Weblog]
They’re worried that the artists won’t get paid – absolute bullshit! Even though CD prices have gone up, artists aren’t getting paid any more than they did when CDs cost less. All of that money is going to the record companies, not the artists. What we’re hearing from Valenti & others is the last dying gasp of a dinosaur that realizes it’s becoming extinct but is trying desperately to survive. The best thing that can happen is for record companies and the entire recording industry to no longer exist in their current form. Piracy and file swapping isn’t destroying them; their own actions is doing it. People don’t want to spend $19 or so for a copy protected CD from one of the few mainstream artists they like to promote with one or two good songs & lots of junk.