As we previously reported, the RIAA is none too happy with one Joel Tenenbaum, who is facing a $1-million lawsuit for downloading seven songs on the filesharing service Kazaa. Tenenbaum, in turn, has launched an admirable defense with the help of attorney Charles Nesson and a Harvard Law School litigation team, along with a website that keeps the world up to date: JoelFightsBack.
Late last week, Mediapost announced that Tenenbaum will also have the support of none other than Radiohead's manager, Brian Message -- that's right, the manager of a recorded musical group: the very population whom the RIAA posits are helpless, hapless victims of rampant downloaders like Tenenbaum. Nesson plans to use Message's testimony to both support the theory that non-commercial filesharing actually encourages growth in the music industry and illustrate the success of Radiohead's non-traditional “pay what you want” album release of In Rainbows (TMT Review).
Of course, the RIAA plan to caterwaul about how filesharing is crippling business, and while it's true that record sales have dropped ($15 billion to $10 billion since the dawn of Napster 10 years ago), Radiohead's record sales markedly increased with the release of In Rainbows. Message's testimony will support the theory that “the music business is going to be saved by readjusting and developing these exciting new business models that are consistent with a digital environment.” In other words, Message will directly represent a musical group that has harnessed the technology of filesharing and used it for profit, thus supporting the defense that filesharing is not simply a tool of destruction within the music industry, and that Tenenbaum's actions fall within the “fair use” category.
What's especially troubling about this case, besides the egregious sum of money demanded over the digital equivalent of a $14 CD, is that the RIAA doesn't even bother to sue filesharers anymore (or is it?). Instead, they've taken to working with Internet service providers to identify and shut down individual users who utilize their internet connections for filesharing, a practice many ISPs feel yucky about. Perhaps the information Message brings to the trial will shed some light on the benefits of filesharing, rather than the small amount of damage caused by one person.
