Wisdom in the Great White North By George Ziemann -- October 25, 2007 While the RIAA continues the music inquisition and people continue to share music with reckless abandon, the question that the media seldom asks is where the artists stand on the issue of the record labels suing their fans. This has not stopped some of them from telling us anyway. In October, 2003, Todd Rundgren was speaking to the artists when he said, "Ask also whether, as a musician, you ever believed the RIAA was actively protecting your interests until they got into a fight with their own customers and started using your name, your so-called well-being, as justification. And when the customers became skeptical they became the enemy. And to follow the RIAA's logic, customers are therefore the enemies of musicians. Let us ignore the fact that if you ever got compensated for your contribution, it would have been because your manager and lawyer (and many before) forced the labels to recognize your labor in financial terms. "The reason why the RIAA comes off as a gang of ignorant thugs is because, well, how do I put this -- they are." That was four years ago. Did anyone listen to him? Maybe, maybe not. Canadian Artists: Don't Sue Fans in Our Name Spotted this one over at Boycott-RIAA. Here's the link, and here are the most important points: "When the Canadian Record Industry Association (CRIA) says 'copyright reform' what they really mean is 'give a free hand to sue fans who download like they have in the US,'" explained CMCC (Canadian Music Creators Coalition) representative and Barenaked Ladies front man Steven Page. "We hope the government has a better solution in mind." "We think lawsuits like the one in Minnesota would be terrible for the music business in Canada. It's shortsighted to say 'See you in court' one day and 'See you at Massey Hall' the next," Page continued. "If record labels want to try and sue fans, we hope that they'll have the courtesy to stop trying to do it in our names." The article also offers the key principles of the CMCC, which the first being: "Suing Our Fans is Destructive and Hypocritical -- Artists do not want to sue music fans. The labels have been suing our fans against artists' will, and laws enabling these suits cannot be justified in artists' names." After I read that, I thought that it was pretty awesome that the artists were finally going to step forward to show some common sense and dignity. Then I looked at what the U.S. artists have to say this year. Not quite as awesome, to say the least. American Artists: Where's Our Money? In March, the Recording Artists Coalition decided to take a survey to find out if anyone had seen a dime from any of the settlements (Kazaa, eDonkey, BearShare, Grokster, iMesh, Audiogalaxy, mp3.com) because, according to their figures, these add up to at least $363 million. In May, they were concerned that the webcasting royalty rates which threaten the small webcasters might be reduced. June brought the realization that, since they didn't have to shell out for payola any longer, they deserved to get paid for airtime. August brought an update on the lawsuit money. "The RIAA claims that in all but two instances, the actual money collected thus far is much less than the reported settlements. Those two exceptions are the MP3.com and Kazaa settlements. To date, the RIAA has reported that it has received slightly less than $6M from the other settlements combined, all of which was applied to the legal costs associated with anti-piracy prosecutions against those and related entities. The RAC also reports that "in MP3.com, each label reached its own settlement and thus dealt with its artists separately," and that "$100M of the Kazaa settlement... is close to being distributed by the RIAA to its member labels; however, there is no indication as to when the labels will distribute the money to the artists." There is also no indication that the RAC even has an opinion on suing the fans. The RAC's key principles don't seem to have anything to do with their fans. They just want to know where their money is.