Ok, I’m going to rant here for a few minutes.

I’m fucking getting tired of this shit I’m seeing from companies lately.  The damn suing has to stop, the damn fights have to stop, the crying has to stop.  Aren’t the people that run these companies supposed to be adults??  What I am I talking about?  Mostly the whole RIAA thing, but the whole “I’m gonna sue” shit.  I try to read the tech news and that is just about all I hear about.

I don’t really consider what they are doing an act of adulthood.  It is more of a childish act if you ask me.

When I was a kid (about 5) when I didn’t get a toy or a chance to do something one of my old brother’s got to do, I’d start to whine and then my mom would yell at them and let me get my way, sometimes with a punishment to my brothers which I enjoyed getting to see.

The above story is NO DIFFERENT than what these companies.  For example let’s look at the same story in the business world.

When I was a kid (about 5 $200 billion strong) when I didn’t get a toy or a chance to do something one of my old brother’s got to doevery penny I could squeez out of the working man, I’d start to whine sue and then my mom the judge would yell at them and let me get my way, sometimes with a punishment to my brothers the little guy which I enjoyed getting to see.

See any difference?  I don’t, same story if you ask me.

Take today’s news story from Ars Techinca here

My favorite quote from the article

the RIAA denies having any influence over XM’s decision to pull the PCR off the market

Bullshit!  There has to be something in it for the XM from the RIAA.  Why would they drop the service for something that DOESN’T DIRECTLY EFFECT THEIR BOTTEM LINE.  Sure it could effect their bottom line if the RIAA upped the royalities they paid. or the other way around, lowered them if they cut off that service.  Or maybe there was a threat to sue that didn’t make it to the public.  We might never know but I’ll sure as hell specualte.

The 5 year old RIAA’s suing thing is so stale it would take a jackhammer to chip through it.  Why don’t they get their dumbasses in gear, start an online store like iTMS and also give you MP3’s of your music on the CD.  Why give us MP3’s on the CD?  So maybe we don’t feel limited to listening to our music on a CD.  God forbid we use a Nomad or iPod.  That would be what the consumer’s want.  I bet the RIAA emplyee’s had to swear to an oath something to the tune of “I hearby state that I will do my best to piss off every customer this business has, to try and take money from the working man and most of all to make sure no one ever makes a change in the way we do things around here”.

I’m not just going off about this even.  This is something that I’ve let build up for some time now and you, my loyal blog readers, get to hear me go nuts.  Lucky you.

I’m getting tired of fighting with closed minded old people about this issue.  I was arguing with this guy the other day and all he kept coming back to was that fact that what is going on is illegal.  I told him that there is no way I can fight the legality of the file sharing that is going on.  What I can argue is the reason it started and what needs to be done to fix it.  He seemed to think that people didn’t want digital music.  I was quick to point out Apple’s sucess with iTMS and that if there would have been a good pay system in place (meaning the RIAA be on the bleeding edge of technoly LMAO) that we wouldn’t see these be as main stream as they are.  Sure we’d see file swapping going on in the underground (newsgroups, ftp sites, warez sites, bit torrent, irc, etc.).  When I argue with people about this (which I’ve done in my personal life and in a structured debate class) I try to knock it through their head, “I know what is going on is wrong, I’m not gonna try and debate that becuase it’s like fighting with a bullet in your head, you don’t get far”.  But I digress.

Then there is this whole company suing comany thing.  This is retarded.

For an instance.  Now I LOVE [H]ardOCP.  I check the site more than 5 times a day and it’s one of the few places that I trust completely for my news.  But the Phantom thing that is going on is crazy.  For more info on this check out whereisphantom.com.  Anyway, in this situation, IL (Infinium Labs) could take the fact that some did their homework and found out some truth about the company and though that their customers should know the truth.  I bet if [H] would have found out about the Enron thing and reported it to the public they would have been loved by general investers.  Sure some things don’t need to be made public, but when you are spreading lies and keep promising things that never come to pass then I think the public has the right to know the truth.  Of course IL sued Hard for the artile they posted tell people what they needed to know.  I don’t know how much I like [H] counter suing, but I see where they are coming from.  They have the right to post the findings they made.  It’s freedom of speech and the press for god sakes, we do still have a bill of rights don’t we?  Whew, seems like we do.

I guess I’ll stop ranting, I just had to get some things off my chest.  I’m tired of trying to read tech news and getting politics instead.  Companies, just run your business how you think it will please your customers, listen to your customers, and hope that by doing that they will buy and help you.  Don’t rely on the court system as a way to deal with the competition, let the best man win.  If some of this doesn’t stop it could have bad effects on the economy (more time in the courtroom and not making customers happy).  I’ll leave you with this from a Ars user inthe forums.

Someday, a music publisher with a clue will catch on, sign some big new talent, strike gold, and the RIAA as we know it and all their members will come crashing down.