UNINNOVATE / Engineering At Its Finest / Since 2006

The Recording Industry Association of America (or RIAA for short) recently filed a music piracy lawsuit against a Ms. Lindor, claiming that she was downloading music illegally from the internet. This came as quite a surprise to Ms. Lindor, a home health aid who has never used a computer. After learning that she doesn’t use computers, the RIAA today issued a subpoena for her son’s computer. But this isn’t the case of mom getting in trouble for son playing on the computer. Her son is a grown man who lives on his own several miles away from his mom. I guess if the RIAA can’t prove someone is stealing music, they will keep poking around until they find a family member that is.

This alone isn’t much of a news story. Everyone knows that the RIAA has sued thousands for online music piracy. Occasionally there will be a few news stories about the more outrageous cases, like the RIAA suing a 12-year-old girl or suing a dead grandma, but generally the lawsuits get settled quietly.

So why all the lawsuits? The RIAA wants you to think they, along with the rest of the industry, are just “looking out for artists” by trying to stop downloaders. If you download music, you must be hurting your favorite band, right?

Then explain this:

The mystery surrounding the cause of recent leaks of The Game’s new album, Doctor’s Advocate, has been solved, thanks to the rapper himself.

The Game, real name Jayceon Taylor, admitted to releasing a clean version of his upcoming release in an overt strategic move.

RapBasement.com

That’s right, the new album by multi-platinum rapper The Game was leaked intentionally by the rapper himself as a way to drive sales:

“You gotta do that. You gotta give people a sample,” said the rapper, who compared the process to an interesting trade. “It’s like selling crack in the ‘hood, man. Anybody that ever sold drugs in the hood knows you gotta give a ***** a taste before they buy.

RapBasement.com

This isn’t another desperate indie artist using the internet to gain exposure any way possible. The Game’s first album sold over five million copies. The Game also leaked that album online and he partially credits the album’s success to that leak. Now he is trying to recreate that success by doing the same thing that the RIAA claims is killing the industry.

While the music industry continues to pursue a robust business strategy of suing customers and hoping that the internet will just go away, a former drug dealer turned musician is making millions by seeding his own music to so-called illegal file sharers. How much more of a wake-up call can an industry get? As old-world record companies become more and more irrelevent, they will have no one to blame but themselves.