14 DAY TRIAL // From time to time, I guess everyone happens to say something like "OK, I am stupid". It's simply natural, sincere and very-very mentally and especially socially-wise healthy. And these benefic effects double up as you don't get any more idiot and brag about how stupid you are.
Well, you see, it looks like RIAA really likes to brag on their dumb actions. Shortly, a very interesting small story and the cretin way things can go as RIAA doesn't seem to pay minimal attention to their (already dumb) actions.
NIN. Aka Nine Inch Nails. A rock/metal band high on the audiences likes. Shorter even: a gold mine. NIN are in their European tour promoting their latest album and their frontman, Trent Reznor has reportedly agreed with the label to make some rather eccentric moves in the promo campaign. Namely, NIN have been hiding USB thumbdrives in the restrooms of the venues they've played in - thumbdrives containing "leaked" songs from their album.
In other words, fans should thoroughly search the places and find the USB sticks loaded with some new songs. Next move? Of course, they'll happily go home and then share these exclusive songs with other people. Buckle up now, here comes s**t! RIAA is trying to bully the websites containing these tracks claiming this is copyright infringement and asking for cease-and-desist immediate measures.
So, let's recapitulate: Reznor comes with this cool USB idea, fans dig it a whole lot and do exactly what Trent Reznor hoped they would: share the songs, make them publicly available! And RIAA says something like they don't care because they haven't received any money from those files, hence the possibility to sue NIN fans for the music the band itself has given to them for distribution. Now, how do we qualify such behavior: money-hunger or plain stupidity?
Michael Paoletta form Billboard reports about a NIN fan who has found one USB drive: "According to one post, a male fan, allegedly by happenstance, found a USB drive in a bathroom stall during a NIN concert at the Coliseum in Lisbon, Portugal. This flash drive (yes, Reznor's idea) contained an MP3 of album track "My Violent Heart." Additional USB drives were purportedly found in Barcelona and Manchester, England; they included MP3s of album tracks "Me, I'm Not" and "In This Twilight," respectively."
Now the funniest (because of its complete idiocy) fact is that RIAA is trying to bully a campaign approved by the NIN's label (Interscope), label whose rights are somehow represented by RIAA. See now why I keep on saying the RIAA are hungry for more and ever more money? They actually don't care where this money comes from. They simply want it, even if they'd have to sue themselves.
Now for the final, take a look to one thing a fellow Softpedia editor (Alex Vochin - gadget master) has found on the web and showed me, much to my tearful laughter: The RIAA Lawsuit Decision Matrix.
