Well, ain’t this about a bitch? The RIAA, no longer content with going after middle aged mothers and senior citizens for filesharing violations, is now cracking down on websites that host mash-up mp3s. As an artist, I totally understand the desire to protect your art, but the RIAA steps all over everyone’s rights, even those artists who actually want their music to be free and available for things like this. As cliché as it sounds, the old copyright laws truly are walking antiques and need to be adjusted according to new tehcnological needs and abilities, if not eradicated entirely. When you look at debacles like Sony’s rootkit screwup, you know that these gestapo-esque tactics are completely counterproductive and can be outright harmful to the people they’re supposedly protecting.

Music, Mash-Ups