The RIAA shows its true colors

The Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry, is full of crap.
There, I said it.
For years, the RIAA has been suing people for illegally downloading music, saying recently that peer-to-peer sharing “is illegal, it can have consequences and it undermines the creative future of music itself.”
That’s a nice little song and dance, but is it true? Studies say no. And this week, after dozen’s of soapbox speeches, the RIAA showed its true colors. The millions of dollars they are suing music fans for is not going to the musicians at all. The organization is keeping the cash.
A recent AP story about a girl from Nebraska being sued by the RIAA for downloading music through Ares (a p2p music sharing program), an RIAA spokeswoman, Jenni Engebretsen, said the money from the lawsuits is: “reinvested in educational programs schools and other groups can use to spread the word that song sharing can have severe consequences.”
WHAT!!!!!!
WHAT!!!!!!
WHAT!!!!!!
I AM SHOCKED!
The RIAA has always maintained that it has been going after these illegal downloaders because they are stealing music and money from the artists who write those songs.
In fact, the RIAA’s mission (according to its Web site) is, “to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members’ creative and financial vitality.”
So, let me connect the dots.
Your “members” pay you to protect their copyright interests because they are losing money. In turn you sue people who are “stealing” their music. But instead of giving your “members” their “money,” you keep it to fund educational programs? Who is developing those programs? The RIAA?
So the RIAA is taking money from the people who are stealing music, and it is keeping it for itself. It is stealing from its members.
Holy crap? This isn’t enough for an investigation? The group paid to protect music copyright is not paying the copyright holders ... the exact same thing it says illegal music downloaders are doing.
Now, I’m not going to say that peer-to-peer sharing is right, because it isn’t. But suing people for money they stole from musicians and then not giving it to the same artists you represent is so much more wrong. That money belongs to the musicians, and the RIAA should give it to them.