RIAA Greed Knows No Bounds

The RIAA has filed suit against AllofMP3 seeking back royalties for music downloaded between June and October of this past year. The filing of the suit has sparked reaction from both AllofMP3 and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The AllofMP3 responded to the outrageous figure rather calmly in a The RIAA has been the object of some scrutiny by many who claim that artists rarely, if ever, see any part of the "royalties" collected by the organization from online music sales. Along with AllofMP3.com, the site: "This irrational crusade is not generating a single penny for the artists that the RIAA claims to protect. The RIAA should be working to create a rational, legal means by which its customers can take advantage of file sharing technology and pay a fair price for the music they love. With artists increasingly turning against the lawsuits, momentum may be shifting in favor of a better way forward." Disclosure: I signed this petition as a show of support for the EFF's stance. I'm left wondering how much of this proposed $1.65 trillion that the artists would actually be entitled should the RIAA win this mockery of a lawsuit? After the RIAA takes their cut, and the record labels then take their share of the loot, and after it's all distributed to the various artists whose music was "illegally" downloaded, how much is left - $150 per artist? Maybe? Even better, though, let's look at the alternative. What would be the ramifications of a court decision in AllofMP3's favor? Nate Anderson over at As you might have been able to deduce by now, I'm not exactly a card-carrying member of the RIAA. It's not that I condone piracy, quite the contrary in fact. It's just difficult to support an organization that has a long and well-documented history of sticking it to musicians time and time again and keeping the loot for themselves. The facts are: