Give us good music or give us our MP3s

The Recording Industry Association of America is at it again. \nLast week U.S. District Judge John D. Bates ordered Verizon Communications Inc. to turn over the name of one of its busiest customers (who downloaded an estimated 600 songs a day from file-sharing programs) to the RIAA. Halle-freaking-lujah. \nThe RIAA has moved to its next step in its battle against the online listener. Instead of taking down Napster this year, the suits behind musicland's money are chasing the individual MP3 consumers. Don't burn your Kazaa-loving PCs just yet though, as RIAA execs are only interested in the big boys -- for now. \nJudge Bates' ruling stems from the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA protects the rights of copyright holders. The new ruling takes this even further and gives record labels and the RIAA the right to request the identity of users, with or without the word of the songwriter/musicians whose music is being downloaded. \nIf you're already quaking in your paranoid little rock and roll boots, think about this: Any clerk of any federal court can draft the subpoena required to get internet service providers to turn over identities. There is no judicial decision involved, meaning that if the RIAA even suspects that Freddy Funk down the hall is downloading a large amount of tunes, his identity will be relinquished by his friendly internet service provider. \nLet's ignore the fact for now that this opens up the door for laws that infringe on privacy, give even more power to the recording industry instead of the artists and make warrants seem like a thing of the past. It's time to address the real issue. Give us some good music at prices we can afford, o ye major labels, and we'll buy it. \nThere is some good music out there today, but it's spread too thin so that the RIAA claims it is losing $15 billion a year from downloading. We propose that the major labels that are whining about not making enough dough actually provide us with more than a few good original artists instead of prepackaged, formulaic sludge. When the A&R floozies find good music, reduce the tab of albums so we can afford them. Then quit being so greedy and realize why you're in the music business. It's not to make bank; it's to spread good ol' rock and roll (or hip hop, folk, whatever). \nChrissie Hynde (The Pretenders) said it best on the issue of creative ways of obtaining music in the January/February 2003 issue of Magnet magazine. She proposes enforced salary caps for musicians/record execs and encourages folks to download music that is priced too high. She goes on to say: "If you're gonna penalize some kid for bringing a tape recorder to a show, you're a cunt, basically. If a record still costs $20, who can afford that?"\nExactly.\n-- Jessica Halverson for the Editorial Board