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Originally Posted by AaronWalkhouse The RIAA represents only record companies, not the artists, who get only pennies from each CD sold, and even then don't get paid until their "debt" to the record companies is paid off. The real world wholesale price the record companies get is about 70 cents a track. The fantasy figures they are so fond of quoting in the press are theoretical "statutory" (punitive) damages which they never will get in
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Given how the RICO statute has been extended beyond the original target, it makes me wonder why there's never been a RICO suit against the RIAA. It might finally untangle this legal mess of whether file sharing is really illegal and raise the question of whether the RIAA has been repeatedly assessing licensing fees on the same songs just because a consumer upgrades to a better recording format. Same goes when consumers upgrade from VHS to DVD... and probably now to Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. Sadly much of what makes up case law has little to do with the merits of a case but may have more to do with the quality of attorneys representing either side.
For more on RICO:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rackete...anizations_Act