Where can I find the most comprehensive attacks on RIAA/DRM/Music Industry

April 3, 2006 6:42 PM

What are the most frank, telling criticisms of issues like RIAA/DRM/Music Industry that you've read before?

It can be 'heard' before too. All I'm looking for is essays, books, websites...I read about the issue all the time, and can say I know a fair bit about it, but I really need to concretely acquaint myself with it. Most accurate, most fact-checkable, most well-written treatises, really.

Though I doubt it will get answered as often in the replies (my follow-ups never seem to), I ask the same question about the War in Iraq and the Bush Administration--same idea; been reading critiques and such since it all started, but I want a really good...symposium I suppose.

PS: Though I know a few, websites for news and updates would be useful as well.

posted by Lockeownzj00 to media & arts (13 comments total)

The Problem with Music - by Steve Albini is widely known as one of the most accurate and scathing critiques of the music industry.

It was completely and utterly ripped off by Courtney Love who seems to get credit for "doing the math" even according to the title of the article by Salon.
posted by twiggy at 7:03 PM on April 3, 2006

I'f you've researched the subject even a little I'd have to guess you've found this already, but Cory Doctorow's speech to Microsoft on the subject of DRM was the most effective and succinct criticism of DRM I've ever read. I'm far less impressed with RMS's thoughts on the subject, though people seem to reference him a lot too.
posted by mragreeable at 7:06 PM on April 3, 2006

If you're interested in the related criticisms of the movie industry/MPAA, Steal this Disc is the most personally-affecting thing I've seen on "piracy" versus copyright. Closer to the subject may be Janice Ian's articles on internet filesharing (written, I believe, before DRM/copy-protection were in widespread use).

The jabs on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have said volumes on the war and the current administration, without coming off as the kind of partisan whinging (and I say that as an unabashed hippie liberal) that most criticisms of same feel like.
posted by Cricket at 9:44 PM on April 3, 2006

In 2001, Bruce Schneier wrote an essay on The Futility of Digital Copy Prevention: "Digital files cannot be made uncopyable, any more than water can be made not wet."

Larry Lessig touches upon DRM within the context of the larger issues of intellectual property in his essays and articles. You might want to check out his 2002 Free Culture presentation, or his books, Free Culture or Code is Law.

A great hook for following up more on DRM is the debate on DRM Shelley Powers' blog at the beginning of the year. A lot of people stop by to chime in.

As far as blogs go, for following up specifically on the latest related to DRM technologies and related law, I find Ed Felten's Freedom to Tinker to be the most focused and topical.

Ian Rogers made an interesting presentation at Barcamp LA recently on Media 2.0 Physics that summarizes a lot of good stuff (he worked both in the record industry at Grand Royale, and now works in Yahoo! Music).

If you're looking for music industry dirt, I think the best resource I've found (not updated much recently I don't think, but great all the same) is the RIAA Files. There's some good cross-examination of the RIAA's "story" on digital distribution vs music sales.

There's also lots of interesting coverage of RIAA stagnation vs Indie Label growth. I have links to a couple older stories but haven't seen any comprehensive archive collecting clippings (maybe cdbaby.org might be a good place to start?). I'd be interested if anyone has reference to a site/wiki dedicated to collecting industry writeups...
posted by lhl at 10:04 PM on April 3, 2006

Not much directly on RIAA and DRM, but Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture has a chapter that really puts it into perspective, as it goes into the history of how every new media had its piracy phase.
posted by RobotHero at 10:29 PM on April 3, 2006

Whether Courtney Love ripped off Albini or not, I think she did a better job of presenting it. IMHO. Maybe because I read hers first; she was the one who opened my eyes.
posted by lhauser at 10:42 PM on April 3, 2006

half question / half proposed answer. very long. i think about this stuff all night.



We're going to have to make a decision soon on what the commodity being sold is: is it the physical commodity like a CD (which seems de jour law if a used CD store can resell it without paying the artist - which then prompts every music feign to ask, why can't i just rip it and burn it for a buddy if the artist gets no payment on a legitimate commercial transaction?), is it access (which seems a fair compromise, a la Napster 2.0/Rhapsody, which might have an amazing future as wireless connectivity increases), or is it the actual content of the art itself [as RIAA would have it - it doesn't matter how it's re-encoded, it's theirs].

My language may be wrong, but I think my point is in there. Copyright law seems a mishmash of common sense interwoven with increasing out-and-out cronyism and corruption in Congress. I have faith that courts, not Congress, is going to make one copyright wheel fit the giant music wagon that contains radio, vinyl, iPod's, CD's, and little bits of torrent data traveling through coffeeshop WiFi reuters. It'll be one of those three. Or another that I'm missing.


an interesting case to mull over... in 2004, Phish made more money with a handful of shows over the summer than did Outkast. Phish had a poorly selling CD and a dedicated fanbase selling out six or so arenas and one blow-out festival (which I imagine was hugely expensive to put on). Outkast was still getting significant airplay, even though Speakerboxx came out the year prior. Phish gives there music away. In fact, it's encouraged. Obviously a successful business model. Let the music make it's own case and you have people like me driving over 1000 miles to see a show.

I think, in the end, it might be the concept of a record that's the endangered species. it would seem in a complete digital anarchy, the only real commodity an artist has is live performance and perhaps some physical distribution of goods [again, likely at shows] including CD's or vinyl or uplinking.

I wonder, though, how a musician with minimal stage presence yet lots to offer is supposed to make it in a digital anarchy.
posted by trinarian at 11:00 PM on April 3, 2006

I've always been partial to Glenn McDonald's writing, and his explanation of why he steals music was persuasive and interesting enough to me that I posted it to metafilter last summer.
posted by dersins at 12:09 AM on April 4, 2006

For an interesting look at the creation side of the business, The Adventures of Mixerman is a great read.

Mixerman has a very engaging, wry style, but all is not as it first appears. Worth the time to read on multiple levels.
posted by Malor at 12:42 AM on April 4, 2006

The following sites miht help you:
The Electronic Frontir Foundation
So sue me blog by Jon Lech Johansen.
Recording Industry vs The People: "A blog devoted to the RIAA's lawsuits of intimidation brought against ordinary working people."
posted by nthdegx at 2:32 AM on April 4, 2006

This .doc is a master's degree essay on the issues of DRM, copy protection and the Norwegian law on intellectual property ("Digital Rights Management Systems as they apply to the Norwegian Intellectual Property Act, Section 53a, Paragraphs 1 and 3, 2nd Sentence").

In his essay, the author refers several times to several paragraphs of Norwegian law and is clearly of the opinion that, among other things, circumventing the iTunes copy protection is legal (by Norwegian law). It's quite in-depth. Even though it's mostly in relation to Norwegian law it covers all the basic and general aspects of the afore-mentioned issues, so you could probably get something worthwhile out of it.

It's all in English, by the way, don't worry.
posted by Haarball at 4:57 AM on April 4, 2006

Here is a really recent interview with the author of Recording Industry vs The People, which I thought was a pretty good summary of the major issues.
posted by ND¢ at 6:04 AM on April 4, 2006

I've been referencing Jamie Zawinski's Webcasting Legally writeup a lot lately w/ respect to the current state of webcasting law, which is closely tied into the copyright/rights of use mess laid out above.
posted by bhance at 6:17 AM on April 4, 2006