RIAA ends one ruinous campaign, begins another

Whoopie!

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that, at long last, the RIAA is going to stop persecuting prosecuting music fans. The journal article claims there have been about 35,000 suits, but according to a recent conversation with file sharing defense attorney Ray Beckerman, the number is higher than 40,000.

That's great, right? Right, but also not so great. Instead of focusing their newly reclaimed resources and energies on promoting workable 21st-century business models for music, the labels are simply shifting their regulatory focus to a smarter place -- the bottleneck, a/k/a ISPs. According to the article:

Instead, the Recording Industry Association of America said it plans to try an approach that relies on the cooperation of Internet-service providers. The trade group said it has hashed out preliminary agreements with major ISPs under which it will send an email to the provider when it finds a provider's customers making music available online for others to take.

This is terrible news; besides undermining what's left of the DMCA's safe harbor provision (that awful law's only saving grace), it undermines "e-speech" -- online free expression, and erodes our privacy.

What the WSJ doesn't mention is that the RIAA has also been negotiating with ISPs to institute a "covenant not to sue" -- essentially, a license that enables ISPs to indemnify their users against copyright infringement liability in exchange for a monthly fee/tax/tariff. (they can't officially call it a license because this would create a contractual clusterfuck with artists and other licensees). While it's not without its problems, this proactive solution makes waaaaaaaay more sense than simply getting smarter about regulating consumer behavior.

Are we really going to let our civil liberties erode completely to save a tiny industry that's too stupid not to drown in shallow water?