If JMan were here, I would get him to say “Well, duh.” to me a few times just so I could hear the dripping incredulity that an eight year old can bring to those two words. I would do it so I could have some sound effects to go with this story.
In Duluth, MN, a trial is underway, Capitol Records v. Jammie Thomas. This is the first lawsuit brought by the RIAA alleging damages for file sharing music to actually go to trial. The head of Sony litigation loosed the information that they have lost money on the suits. The suits are brought by the recording industry against individuals. The recording industry threatens a lawsuit and the individual often coughs up the dough, usually in the $3000 to $4000 range. Most of the operation works through a phone bank, with thuggish callers trying to scare the be-jesus out of individuals. It has more in common with a shakedown operation than it does a legitimate business. Defense attorney David Toder was cross examining Sony head of litigation, Jennifer Pariser.
Toder then raised the question of the RIAA targeting the wrong people in its lawsuits. “How many dead people have you sued?” he asked, a question that was blocked after Gabriel objected. Toder then took a different tack, asking Pariser if she recognized the names of Gertrude Walton, Sarah Ward, Cindy Chan, and Paul Wilke—all innocent victims of the RIAA’s driftnet tactics.
The next line of questioning was how many suits the RIAA has filed so far. Pariser estimated the number at a “few thousand.” “More like 20,000,” suggested Toder. “That’s probably an overstatement,” Pariser replied. She then made perhaps the most startling comment of the day. Saying that the record labels have spent “millions” on the lawsuits, she then said that “we’ve lost money on this program.”
Your operation is losing money and you are alienating customers with it, and you wonder why record sales are off?
Well, duh.