I am not saying that the RIAA is right. I think there may be some small amount of truth in what they claim but I have little doubt that their statistics and claims are grossly inflated. (I do, however, acknowledge the possibility that the bad statistics are the result of poor math skills rather than deliberate deceit. Innumeracy is even more common than illiteracy and exists at the highest levels of business and politics.)
Nor am I saying that file-sharing does not have its good points. It would be ridiculous to say it does not.
All I am saying is that, regardless of the positions of the file-sharing consumer and the territorial corporations, I choose to support the artists' right to choose for themselves.
Maybe they'll choose to sell their rights to a corporation. Maybe they'll choose to make some of their music available for free download. It is not my place to make that choice for them.
Posted on Jul 16, 2002, 11:55 PM from IP address 207.195.139.200