As is generally known (or, rather, less tidily: "as is known by a number people with whom I've discussed the matter in great or small detail, which number is rather greater than the number of people with whom I've discussed, say, the Canucks' chances this season"), I get bent out of shape when people start yammering about the RIAA, or about how Hilary Rosen is the Wicked Witch of the West or something instead of a person who went on to work for the Human Rights Campaign. The whole good guys/bad guys dynamic really sticks in my craw, because it's pointless, and reductive, I think. I can get pretty worked up about it. Only then the RIAA does something like this, and sane people the world over wonder: what the hell are you guys thinking? Haven't any of you actually used a computer to listen to music? Didn't it occur to you, the first time you listened to something in streaming audio, that streaming audio is the cuddly fuzzy harmless grey-and-white kitten of online music distribution? Didn't anybody ask whether wagging the finger at a well-loved singer and songwriter, one whose longtime boosterism of music he loves has done our industry much good over the years, might not be, how to put this gently, totally moronic? What, exactly, is your overall goal?
(story via Boing Boing)