Is The RIAA Dying A Slow Painful Death?

[Kevin Amos]

http://www.prefixmag.com/news/is-the-riaa-dying-a-slow-painful-deat...
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Is The RIAA Dying A Slow Painful Death?

7:32 p.m. . August 20, 2012 . by Sasha Geffen

If you've ever silently wished death upon the Recording Industry
Association of America, your prayers may be poised to come true. The
anti-piracy giant that went after torrenters with bared teeth might just
crash and burn long before filesharing does. Tax records show that the
RIAA has seen a 50% drop in profits over the past two years.

That's a steep fall--from $51.35 million to $29.1 million, to be
precise. The reason? The association is seeing a lot less cashflow from
membership dues as major music labels consolidate. Fewer majors in the
world means a lot less money for the entity that's supposed to safeguard
them from intellectual property theft.

And while the RIAA continues to lobby the government steadily, it's been
spending less on legal fees as it's stopped hunting down individual file
sharers. Taking down the Pirate Bay or Megaupload is more efficient than
screwing teens out of a few grand apiece, apparently. But the
association's legal strategy doesn't seem to be doing them much good;
cases like the one against Limewire, whom the RIAA says owes $75
trillion in damages, are so ridiculous that judges have been throwing
them out.

While the RIAA's funds may be running dry, its top executives are, in
the true American spirit, still seeing absurd payouts. CEO Cary Sherman
came out with $1.37 million last year, while senior executive vice
president Mitch Bainwol scored a mean $1.75 million. Although it has
just 72 employees, the RIAA paid them a total of $12.7 million last
year.

We've known for a while that the RIAA's attempts at protecting
intellectual property have been outrageous, even borderline evil at
points. Looks like the music world's finally ready to usher this old
enemy out.

C Prefix, 2012