perfidy

A couple things. First. I sincerely doubt that the RIAA lawsuits named today (I really should provide links, so here you go. Here too. not bothering -ed.) will go to trial. I suspect that these are primarily a scare tactic aimed at curtailing trading through the simple threat of prosecution. And, they did choose their targets carefully-- people who maintained libraries of tens or hundreds of thousands of files. Not even I have bought that many albums. I could be wrong though. The RIAA's leadership seem to live in a dream-world where copyright law trumps individual privacy, so it is possible they could proceed, and even sue more people.

Next. I am fully aware that trading thousands of songs via peer-to-peer networks is mainifestly illegal. While I believe that suing people that engage in this behavior is offensive and wrongheaded, I also think that such people are ruining a good thing for the rest of us. So-called victimless crimes like going 70 in a 65-mile-per-hour zone, downloading a single track, like say the ? and the Mysterions klassic kut "96 Tears", or sneaking your recycling in with the neighbors, are fairly innocuous though nominally illegal. Much as I would be furious at all parties if a bunch of teens started drag-racing their riced-up shitmobiles down I-95 with the result that all speeders automatically recieved jail time, I am furious at all parties here, both defendants and plaintiffs.

There's a lot of us in the pool, folks. Stop dropping Baby Ruths in it.