RIAA and Mediacom

Mediacom, Des Moines' cable Internet provider, has to date, received 6 subpoenas on behalf of the RIAA for identity information on its users' downloading of copyright protected music on peer-to-peer networks, such as Kazaa.

Whether Mediacom succumbs to the requests is really irrelevant.

In many cases, if you buy it, you own it lock, stock and barrel. You have the right to screw with it, tinker with it, destroy it, or improve it however you see fit -- provided you don't hurt anyone or cause damage to anyone else's property in the process. At least that's what we hope is the case.

If you buy a CD, you own the CD. It's a bona fide contract between you and the seller. It's the same with any product. But if you reproduce it and sell it and make money on the venture, you are stealing someone else's hard work for profit. I doubt any reasonable person diagrees with that.

But that's not what this is about, and I think most people grasp that.

If this was really about stealing something, then we would be given an opportunity to pay for it, right? well, they don't give us that opportunity. Companies hold out a perfect product (free entertainment) and the RIAA stands there sneering, waiting for you take the bait. If they really had the artists' best interest at heart, then they would recommend that the companies that provide this entertainment ensure that the artists get paid. But they don't. Instead, they seek control. Control of polititians, hence, control of the very customers who have paid the money for CDs in the first place -- the only people that care about the artists.

Process that and tell me what you think.

Update, August 21, 2004: Mediacom has released the personal information, so RIAA has won and technology has lost -- for now.