Pete Ashdown

I am not a fan of online petitions. I think they’re ignored more than email by most of our federal officials. However, I’m a bigger fan of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the causes they champion. It is rare that they ask for action, but right now they’re asking for signatures for congress in response to the RIAA. If the website doesn’t respond, keep trying, its been slammed by people signing up for the petition.

The RIAA (Recording Industry of America) is the fine organization that has sued everyone from a family without a computer to a deceased 83-year-old woman to a 12-year-old girl for Internet file swapping. Those who scream for tort reform are wise to inspect this organization, because they’re one of the worst offenders. Rather than embrace technology to offer back-catalogs of music to the masses, they continue to spread lawsuits and ask for further restrictions and penalties from congress.

Artists should be fairly compensated for their work. Services like Apple’s iTunes and my personal favorite Bleep meet that demand without lawsuits and draconian regulation.