MUSIC THEFT….Megan McArdle tells us today about attempts in several states to ban personal firewalls. Why? The RIAA thinks they encourage music file sharing by hiding IP addresses.
Megan’s post on this is 100% correct. There’s no reason why music companies shouldn’t be concerned that people are downloading music for free, and since we live in a free market they should be allowed to charge whatever they think the market will bear for their products ? if they’re wrong, the market will let them know.
On the other hand, their efforts to stop music downloading have been so wildly hamhanded and technically illiterate that they’ve become their own worst enemy. It’s hard for any thinking person not to cheer the music downloaders after hearing a few too many recording industry proposals that are better suited to Stalin’s Russia than they are to the bedrooms of American teenagers.
