OPEN LETTER

I calmed down enough to actually write an actual opinion.

The Internet is the world's biggest Libertarian experiment. Anything goes on the net. That means, unfortunatly for artists, piracy. It's too bad, but it happens.

Now people share files with each other over the internet. Music files, video files, image files, etc. As technology becomes more advanced, more stuff gets shared and better encrypted.

Senator Orrin Hatch proposed destroying people's systems if they share files "illegally." On another site (and I don't remember where, might have been Kos) it was estimated that many, many federal government computers share music files "illegally." If Sen. Hatch's system goes into effect, think of the chaos. ("Oops, can't communicate with that Army division at the front? Sorry, a few computers at CENTCOM needed the latest Toby Keith. Too bad, they're all dead now.")

I'm not sure what the RIAA's heavy-handed tactics are going to get them. Frankly, CD's are the same price they were when they came out more than a decade ago. Often, they're even higher. That's because they fixed prices (the recording industry, that is). Will people stop file sharing? Nope. We'll just find a new way to do it. It's easy. And what's to stop one person from buying one CD to make copies for all his friends? You can write-protect it, yes. However, I believe some 12-year-olds cracked that. Try again.

They can't stop it. And suing everyone to "make a point" and "to make them afraid" gives them no moral clarity. Bunch of assholes, that's all they are.