RIAA Backs Up the Bus by George Ziemann -- April 18, 2006 The RIAA finally decided to release its "statistics" for 2005 and accompanying disinformation leaflet. If I get some time, there are a few interesting things I noticed, especially compared to Nielsen's figures, which were released about 5 minutes after the retail year ended. More noticable is the fact that they didn't announce the glorious success of suing another batch of music fans in March. While this doesn't mean that they didn't sue anyone, it is the first time they haven't crowed loudly about it. In fact, they haven't said much of anything for four full months, either on their site or in the media, which is the longest they've kept quiet since about 1997. I'd like to believe they've given up the fight, but it's too late for that. They've still got 15,000 or so unresolved lawsuits. Among them is the case of Patricia Santangelo, who has asked to RIAA to prove its case, starting with producing the copyrights for every song she is accused of downloading or sharing or whatever it is they claim the case is based upon. After all, if you didn't even bother to register a copyright, then you can't very well sue someone for infringing upon it. For some reason, the RIAA is reluctant to provide the documents. In other cases, the RIAA assertions in court have become simply ridiculous. Since the fall of Jack Abramoff, lobbyists have been given short shrift on Capitol Hill. Since the RIAA is supposed to be a lobbying organization (as opposed to the cartel collaboration committee that it appears to be), they've probably found themselves dropped from a lot of guest lists. Then there was the whole Sony spyware fiasco (which has reportedly infected numerous government computers to the point of being unuseable), not to mention a corporate reorganization at Sony. In the world of radio, the plug has been pulled on payola, at least for a little while, as far as you know, potentially opening up the airwaves to a more diverse range of options. Potentially. Theoretically. Perhaps starting with those Canadian record labels that said the "Sue Everyone" campaign just wasn't working for them and dropped out of the CRIA (the Canadian branch of the RIAA). It'd make sense for the RIAA to close up shop at this point in time, if for no other reason than the brand name has been dragged so deeply into the mud it will never be clean again. It'll be easier to all just sign up as customers of Hilary Rosen and Jay Berman's new recording industry consulting company, "Cartels R Us". Yeah, maybe they're backed into a corner and ready to confess their sins, admit that it was never about the artists and that, yes, crappy mp3s are only good for advertisement, which is why they have to "leak" every new album on the Internet at least a week before it hits the streets. I've been watching these buffoons long enough to know that they can't admit defeat. This long pause in activity could mean that they're simply planning their next major course of action, which has to be so stupid it surpasses both "sue the customers" and "plant controlling spyware on everyone's computer" or the press won't even notice. I can hardly wait to see.