The recording industry, that mom and pop enterprise with a heart of gold, has just made a big arrest in Poland. Somewhere in between exploiting the sex appeal of teenage vocalists and promoting violent and explicit lyrics to children, the music bizz was able to track down and ruin the life of one Polish man found distributing the New Depeche Mode single online, prior to its release. While this scandal generates free publicity for the band and allows the music industry to test our guillibility by claiming they are concerned with the well being of small record store owners and 'artists,' normal people interested in music are once again forced to the big stores where their hard earned money is extracted for CD's that cost less than a penny (probably less than a Grosc) to make.
An address in Kielce, Poland, was raided by police who removed two computers and a number of CDs said to contain copied music. The International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) worked with Polish industry group ZPAV and Depeche Mode's label Mute, owned by EMI, to have the files removed.
Raids like this are becoming increasingly common worldwide and the seedy underbelly of college dorm rooms and internet cafes are being exposed as the criminal enterprises they really are! The demand for downloadable music will of course continue to increase, as there is a huge gap in the market for music, which the industry itself has created. But, people who attempt to play by the rules of the market and demonstrate that the price of music is inflated are criminals, while billionares who attempt to form monopolies are simply defending the rights of honest musicians.
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