In the past, I’ve made an effort to show people how wrong it is to attack the RIAA because it brings about a result that is contrary to what those same people want.  On that note I’m going to use Mark Evan’s post on today’s developments to help make that point once again. 

After years of waging a legal jihad against their customers, the music industry has decided that nasty lawsuits isn’t a good tactic anymore. You have to wonder why the change of heart given the music industry seemed to take great pleasure is suing the pants off people as opposed to working on creating a kick-ass business model.

So they sue, and they’re evil.  They stop suing, they’re evil.  What they should do is create a “kick-ass” yet unfortunately completely undefined business model that will somehow make people willing to steal music agree to pay for it.  That’s what they SHOULD be doing.  Sure.

According to the Wall St. Journal, the ISP will “either forward the note to customers, or alert customers that they appear to be uploading music illegally, and ask them to stop. If the customers continue the file-sharing, they will get one or two more emails, perhaps accompanied by slower service from the provider. Finally, the ISP may cut off their access altogether.”

To be honest, it’s a brilliant approach.

After all, why do all the dirty work by yourself when you can build an army to fight the good fight. By taking this approach, the RIAA moves away from being the Evil Empire, while getting some help to achieve the same end goal.

Here’s the reality of the situation: It isn’t hard to sue someone for file trading.  Yes there will be one in a few hundred thousand people who will fight back but in the end it’s a job that a first year law student could do. 

Because the practice of law is all about figuring out which precedents apply and making the argument for those precedents.  But once a case has been researched by high end attorneys and those arguments have been used dozens of times in court you can just hand a low level lawyer a script and send him on his way.  This is especially true since most file traders can’t afford a lawyer to defend themselves and no one will take a case against the RIAA pro-bono because they know they’ll probably lose. 

Meaning the last thing the RIAA needs is an army of ISPs to help.

That said, I suspect the RIAA is desperate at this point.  Their job was to pursue the record companies’ interests while taking the heat off the actual record companies.  Thus far they’ve done neither of those things.  Everyone still blames the record companies and file trading is, at best, only slightly diminishing (and some claim it’s growing). 

So the desperation is coming from the RIAA who, after having their budget repeatedly cut, is starting to see the writing on the wall. 

But it’s important to remember something here: The RIAA is not the record companies.  If the RIAA dies it won’t end the record companies’ efforts to stop file trading.  It will only give birth to another organization tasked with the same goals.  Which makes the RIAA’s desperation a good thing because it makes them more willing to deal (which a new organization probably won’t be).   

Which brings me back to my point.  File Trading Advocates can attack the RIAA all they want but it isn’t going to accomplish anything.  What they need to do is praise every effort that moves away from harsh tactics and work with the RIAA to develop realistic solutions.  The RIAA’s current desperation means there’s no time like the present to start a dialogue.