Demonbaby has a really damn fantastic little piece about the ongoing “record industry suicide.”

It chronicles the journey many millions of us have made in the wake of digital filesharing technologies: So I can download this stuff for free? Let me try it. Damn, this doesn’t feel right. I should still pay something. What the hell? CD’s still cost damn near $20? Fuck this. *Click*

I also appreciate the passing treatment of copyright law in the essay:

At the top of all this is the rigged, outdated, and unfair structure of current intellectual property laws, all of them in need of massive reform in the wake of the digital era. These laws allow the labels to maintain their stranglehold on music copyrights, and they allow the RIAA to sue the pants off of any file-sharing grandmother they please. Since the labels are owned by giant corporations with a great deal of money, power, and political influence, the RIAA is able to lobby politicians and government agencies to manipulate copyright laws for their benefit. The result is absurdly disproportionate fines, and laws that in some cases make file sharing a heftier charge than armed robbery.

If iPods are outlawed, only outlaws will have iPods.

[via Sivacracy]