“I personally would like you to show more respect for the hard work of the artists, writers, singers, dancers etc. And by extension, more respect for the hard working lobbyists like the RIAA who are fighting for the artists’ rights. Will I get it? I’m not holding my breath.”

I was going to mark this post as funny by the end of the first paragraph since it was clearly a genius display of sarcastic wit and then I read the next paragraphs.

I’ll make you a deal. I’ll write something positive about the RIAA (even though we’re talking about the MPAA in this article, but we’ll excuse the off-topic nature of your rant just to be nice), as soon as the RIAA and their lobbyists actually start fighting to the artists’ rights.

The RIAA is an organization of recording companies. They don’t represent artists at all. They purport to, but in the same manner that Congressmen purport to represent their constituents when they pass legislation written by corporations for the benefit of corporations.

If the RIAA and their lobbyists are fighting for artists’ rights, why aren’t the companies making their standard contracts more fair to the artists they sign? Why aren’t they changing the way advances and other accounting practices that charge artists for the privilege of creating profitable works of art for the labels work? Why are they fighting having to pay artists like Eminem a bigger share of the profits that he’s earned for them? Why are they not making sure that royalties are actually getting to the artists? Why aren’t they making sure that payments from the fans they shakedown for settlements go to the artists?

When you can show that the RIAA is doing those things, heck, even just one of those things, convincingly, I will write something positive about the RIAA.

As it is, the only nice thing I think I’ll ever be able to say about the RIAA is that one day it will die.

personally would like you to show more respect for the hard work of the artists, writers, singers, dancers etc. And by extension, more respect for the hard working lobbyists

How does one extend to the other at all?

And boy does everyone around here expect the company to deliver immediately whenever anyone dreams of getting it, or else taking something is morally justified. At least that’s the argument around here. Theft, piracy and “sharing” are all a-okay if some company doesn’t deliver exactly what you want when you want it.

That’s a very common straw man around here but no, that’s not what anyone is saying at all. What’s being said is addressing those reasons is how you stop piracy, not screaming ‘piracy’ into the wind and stomping your feet like a toddle when the government doesn’t write the laws you want.

As they ignore there customer so will the customers ignore there cry’s for mercy, sorry they have ignored there customers and as with any business when you ignore your customers the customers find other methods of getting what they want, and no it is not stealing , I am sharing with friends, a natural things for a healthy and happy society.

If they want to regain any part of there old customer base they need to start listening to there customer, there ignorance has already caused most music and video rental stores to close, and if they are not careful it will mean theatres and radio could be the next businesses that are boycotted, if they do not want to listen to there customer there customers will, and have stopped listening to them.

now go and tell them what you have learnt here, go and tell them that people actually do want to pay for content they consume, but however they charge customers it is going to have to compete with free and if they cannot figure out how to compete with free they need to get out of the business.

“I personally would like you to show more respect for the hard work of the artists, writers, singers, dancers etc.”

I guess you missed the articles about Amanda Palmer, Louis C.K., Dan Bull and quite a few others. That’s okay. I understand that ignorance is bliss and it’s much easier to pretend Mike doesn’t respect artists rather than realize he very much does and gladly puts artists before gatekeepers. (Thus all the articles denouncing those who claim to fight for the artists yet screw them at every turn. Want some links?)

“And by extension, more respect for the hard working lobbyists like the RIAA who are fighting for the artists’ rights.”

LOL! Wow. Delusional much? Those “hard working lobbyists like the RIAA” are fighting for everyone but the artists’ rights. Namely, they’re looking out for one group, the gatekeeprs/copyright holders (both of whom are seldom artists themselves).

And sorry, but why should Mike right anything respectful about a group whose methods have included suing people with little to no proof of having committed any type of crime, have colluded to inflate product prices, have routinely resorted to shady accounting practices to avoid paying artists, have falsified studies to lobby the government to legislate their business failings, have actually gone as far as to try and have laws passed that would lead to censorship, etc etc etc?

No, those “hard working lobbyists like the RIAA” deserve absolutely no respect whatsoever. And that you would place them on equal footing with actual artists is rather atrocious.

“Will I get it? I’m not holding my breath.”

Good thing you aren’t, because you won’t get anyone to respect the RIAA. Ever. Nor the studios/labels. Their actions speak for themselves, and suffice it to say their actions are not the actions of individuals you would in any way, shape or form respect.

“Just because a customer wants something in a particular form doesn’t give the customer the right to stomp their feet like a toddler when the company doesn’t deliver.”

Actually, it does give the customer the right to do exactly that. In case you aren’t aware, which you obviously aren’t, you are nothing without the customers. If you don’t please your customers and meet their wants and needs you have no business. You can make all the records and films in the world, but if no one wants to buy them then you have nothing on your hands but a huge waste of time, effort and finances.

“And boy does everyone around here expect the company to deliver immediately whenever anyone dreams of getting it, or else taking something is morally justified.”

No, taking something is not morally justified. Leave morals out of this. Yours aren’t mine and mine aren’t Mike’s and so on and so forth. But when thought about reasonably, it’s easy to see how some would feel justified in obtaining things by methods that aren’t approved of.

Also, in this day and age, at this point in time, with all the technological advances we have literally at our finger tips it makes no business sense, much less any sense at all, to not try and deliver a product as quickly as possible to market for mass consumption/purchase. You can literally film a movie and have it ready for release and with the simple click of a button on a mouse and keyboard put it on a website and make it available for purchase to anyone around the world. A purchase that can take place within seconds, and where the customer can view it within seconds (assuming their internet bandwidth is fast enough).

So why can’t they deliver it immediately, again? Let’s hear your response. The technology isn’t there? Lol. Silly rabbit. There’s one reason and one reason only, they’re stuck in the past and want to try and extract the maximum amount of profit through the use of windowed releases. A terrible sense of entitlement if I’ve ever seen one.

“At least that’s the argument around here. Theft, piracy and “sharing” are all a-okay if some company doesn’t deliver exactly what you want when you want it.”

Don’t conflate sharing with theft. The point is moot and has been slapped down more times than you’d believe on this site. And also, no that isn’t the argument around here. The argument around here tends to be along the lines of we would love, abso-fucking-lutely love to give you money for a huge range of music and video products, unfortunately, due to a variety of restrictions and outdated business practices you don’t want to sell us anything that is already available. As such, some people turn to less than legal methods of acquiring said products. After all, if you don’t want our money, then you have no right to complain when someone is willing to give away the same product for free. We try and meet you, even now, more than halfway. We adamantly tell you we have money and want to give it to you and you turn us away. We then tell you how you can get our money and what we’d like in return and you and yours label us as pirates and tell us to mind our business. You then demand government protection, which at the end of the day we pay to put in place and enforce through taxes we pay, to defeat a problem that is a result of your own inability to meet the wants/demands of the market. Sorry, but if you don’t want our money then I see no problem with not giving it to you. But suffice it to say if I decide to go with a less than legal alternative you have no right to complain.

“So when is my positive coverage of the RIAA going to arrive?”

When they do something positive. Until then we’ll keep getting the same coverage on them that we’ve been getting.

“If I don’t get it, I’ll have to think of some laws to violate once you fail to deliver.”

Technically, this site just covers what’s going on. Nothing more, nothing less. As such, if you aren’t getting positive coverage for the RIAA then it’s because the RIAA isn’t doing anything positive. Which means it won’t be because “you” (Mike) fails to deliver, it will be because the RIAA fails to deliver. See what you did there? You blamed the wrong person. You don’t work for the studios/labels by chance do you? Just asking, seeing as how you blame the wrong people for the wrong things.

As for violating laws, well… hop to it. But just keep in mind that violating the law can and does have consequences. Of course, sometimes they’re almost nil, but that depends on what laws you violate. However, I’d be careful making such statements like you did because if you do violate a law someone could easily say, “He was going to do it and said so right here.” That won’t look good for you.

“Boy that will be fun.”

Yeah, I’m sure it will be. But not as fun as it’s been rebutting every single thing you said.

The sad part is you got a “LOL” next to your comment there. Because people thought the entire thing was a joke. So whatever point you thought you were going to make you didn’t actually make. You’re so over the top you fail on delivery.