RIAA goes too far for $$$

The RIAA, or the Record Industry Association of America controls a good portion of the record industry. Over the years, they are pushing for laws that would prevent them from downloading anything "Copyrighted". This is a problem because the ways they pursue their goals are unconstitutional, and unfair. Ever since the AHRA was enacted, every CD-R has a hidden tax added into the price, approx 2% of the manufacturers sales. This is supposed to go to the artists, but instead, the tax goes to the RIAA. The worst part of it is not one artist that was paid a cent of the money. 4% is set aside for non-featured artists, of the remainder 40% for the featured artist and 60% for the labels. To date not one artist who has received one cent of this money. (Source: RIAA website. Every CD recorder also has a $2.00 surcharge added onto the price, of which goes directly to the RIAA. This all jacks up prices at retail stores, which is a problem because not everybody wants to pay $15 - $20 for a CD. The NRAA also pushes for acts and laws to prevent people from downloading MP3 files, or anything free. They recently sued college students, and wanted them jailed for downloading MP3s on their computer. THEY ARE JUST TEENAGERS! Why not go after Nintendo for putting Sonic the Hedgehog on the Gamecube with this logic then? Here are some examples of what they want:

(1.) Hacking into the computer (which is also ILLEGAL), and knocking you off line if they find you downloading MP3s, and disable your system (2.) Using software that would go into a computer, and deletes the MP3s (3.) Suing the individual school students, or college students (4.) Pushing for laws that would make all computers be installed with spy-ware that would prevent people from downloading MP3s, or other files.

This is a clear violation of our 1st and 4th amendment rights. These laws would also be a heavy violation of the 4th amendment, which states " We the undersigned feel that we should be able, under certain guidelines, be able do download files freely. Ideas ranging from sites that only have MP3s from artists who allow this practice, or a site where a ONE TIME ONLY fee would be paid, and the persons would have access to all the files he/she wanted, and the best thing would be that the money would go directly to the artists themselves. We also feel that the artists who produce the music should get most of the money, and not the recording industries. With new cheaper, yet better quality technology, the artists of music would be able to produce their music & music videos, and release them on the web without having to loose money to the greedy recording industries. To conclude, we feel that the RIAA goes too far, and hurts themselves more than people who share MP3s on the net. We might need some regulating on the MP3 scene, but lobbying unconstitutional laws by big, corrupt industries, and arresting the people who can't possibly pay up charges is the wrong way to go. Please listen to our plea, and do something about the RIAA today before our constitutional rights and freedoms are trampled on by greed and power.