53×11 has responded to the FBI’s ubiquitous new anti-piracy seal with an Anti-Anti-Piracy Seal that alerts people to artists who support file-sharing:
Independent artists need a method to alert fans that they won’t face 20 years of prison time for downloading their songs. In an effort to combat the FBI’s Anti-Piracy Seal, I have created an alternative logo for artists who aren’t concerned with file sharing and federal level copyright infringement.
I doubt you’ll ever see this on an actual album, but I think it’s a good idea…
While I’m on the topic, I have something to say about these new FBI seals. As J-Walk Blog notes, stamping these logos on album covers and the CDs themselves effectively defaces them, penalizing people who went to the trouble of legally buying the CD.
Along the same libes, the recent settlements the RIAA made over file-sharing litigations are proving to be less and less realistic now that services like Napster and Yahoo offer unlimited streaming for as little as $5 a month and iTunes offers downloads for $1 a song. The RIAA’s settlements of thousands of dollars seem ludicrous when the music is now demonstrably worth as little as $5. When will the RIAA get with the times and realize that their heavy-handed methods alienate rather than educate consumers?
