No Rock And Roll Fun

UNSURPRISINGLY UNPOPULAR: The RIAA legal action is winning them no friends - only thirty seven per cent of Americans support suing people for file downloading; this from a survey commissioned by a bunch of lawyers keen to lecture about what an excellent idea it is for an industry supposedly losing money hand over fist to employ expensive lawyers in nice suits to sue single mothers, teenagers and grandparents. A Professor Sharon Sandeen suggests "I suspect that many people, when educated about the purpose of copyright law, support the law. Public opposition to the lawsuits may be due, in part, to what some people consider hard-handed tactics by the RIAA." And when people are educated about the "purpose" of copyright law, what are they taught? The usual fib that it's about making sure artists get paid, or the actual truth, that it's a tool designed to allow multinational companies to extract cash from intellectual property that a generation ago would have been available for much more free use?