Tuesday, October 1, 2002

Wait, Weren't the RIAA's Members Paying Radio Stations to Play Their Songs? It has finally happened. The RIAA has finally fallen into the logical black hole of its own arguments. The Recording Industry Association of America filed a $7.1 billion lawsuit against the nation's radio stations Monday, accusing them of freely distributing copyrighted music. "It's criminal," RIAA president Hilary Rosen said. "Anyone at any time can simply turn on a radio and hear a copyrighted song. Making matters worse, these radio stations often play the best, catchiest song off the album over and over until people get sick of it. Where is the incentive for people to go out and buy the album?" Outraged by the RIAA suit, many radio listeners are threatening to boycott the record companies. "All these companies care about is profits," said Amy Legrand, 21, an avid Jacksonville, FL, radio user who surreptitiously records up to 10 songs a day off the radio. "Top 40 radio is taking the power out of the hands of the Ahmet Erteguns of the world and bringing it back to the people of Clear Channel and Infinity Broadcasting. It's about time somebody finally stood up to those record-company fascists." 8:45:55 PM     What do you think? ()

What Took So Long? According to an article in the New York Times: The government warned pharmaceutical companies today that they must not offer any financial incentives to doctors, pharmacists or other health care professionals to prescribe or recommend particular drugs, or to switch patients from one medicine to another. What I don't understand is why this was ever allowed in the first place. I've got to say that it's a little unsettling, at the end of an appointment with your psycho-pharmacologist at which she has prescribed Celexa to you, to ask her for a pen to write the check and have her hand you a Celexa pen helpfully provided by Forest Pharmaceuticals. 8:18:20 PM     What do you think? ()

So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star? The New York Times has an article about the band Dry Cell that nicely illustrates all that has gone wrong with the record industry, and it's not Internet file sharing. 7:56:20 AM     What do you think? ()

© Copyright 2003 Morgan N. Sandquist. Last update: 11/2/03; 10:28:44 AM.

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