Recording Industry Needs an Image Overhaul
The poor recording industry. It’s just trying to protect the rights of the companies and of the artists who record for them. I really do believe that. But somewhere along the way, they’ve acquired an image worse than that of Big Oil. Record companies are masters of imaging for their artists, so you’d think they would be able to turn that talent on to themselves and overhaul their image - it’s gotten so bad that no matter what they do these days there’s an instant jump to dislike whatever they’re doing.
The latest is an effort to weigh in on proposed legislation in California that would limit the ability of private individuals to pretend to be other people, if the purpose is to obtain personal information from or about someone else. In other words, you’d no longer be able to play undercover cop unless you really were an undercover cop. Personally, I think that bites, but I’ll get over it. The recording industry, however, wanted an exception in the legislation that would ensure they could continue to conduct undercover copyright piracy investigations without running afoul of the law. I think it’s a reasonable request, but instead of starting a considered debate on the whole issue, the recording industry was vilified for even bringing it up. You can read the story in the LA Times, and I apologize in advance for linking to a site that requires registration - albeit free registration - but I couldn’t find the story anywhere else.
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