There’s this Tagalog song that they play in local discos called Sex Bomb. It’s not the crappy song that Tom Jones had a hit with; it’s a different, even crappier song. Since I don’t know Tagalog, the chorus of this song sounds like they’re singing “Spaghetti papa ass, papa ass, papa ass!” My maid semi-reliably informs me that those are not the words that they’re singing but that’s still what it sounds like to me.
Falling under the heading of spaghetti papa ass today is the recording industry as a whole and especially the RIAA. This report on testimony given on the first file-sharing case to go to trial in the U.S. holds few surprises.
One of the biggest bombshells from the cross-examination was [Sony BMG head of litigation Jennifer] Pariser’s admission that the RIAA’s legal campaign isn’t making the labels any money, and that, furthermore, the industry has no idea of the actual damages it suffers due to file-sharing ….
The next line of questioning was how many suits the RIAA has filed so far. Pariser estimated the number at a “few thousand.” “More like 20,000,” suggested Toder. “That’s probably an overstatement,” Pariser replied. She then made perhaps the most startling comment of the day. Saying that the record labels have spent “millions” on the lawsuits, she then said that “we’ve lost money on this program.”
The RIAA’s settlement amounts are typically in the neighborhood of $3,000-$4,000 for those who settle once they receive a letter from the music industry. On the other side of the balance sheet is the amount of money paid to SafeNet (formerly MediaSentry) to conduct its investigations, and the cash spent on the RIAA’s legal team and on local counsel to help with the various cases. As Pariser admitted under oath today, the entire campaign is a money pit.
In any other business, suing your best customers, alienating your fan base and losing millions of dollars in the process would be properly viewed as insanity.
It certainly would seem from this testimony that the outcome of this trial is a foregone conclusion. As opposed to the Hong Kong person who posted torrents for three really bad movies and was sentenced to prison.
