The Newspaper Industry Doesn’t Get It Either

You’d think, if you were an industry from the 18th century, you’d look at other industry’s that successfully moved into the 21st century and copy them. Instead, like the luddites of the RIAA and the MPAA, the newspaper industry has decided to sue their readers into oblivion.

Since Righthaven’s formation in March, the company has filed at least 80 federal lawsuits against website operators and individual bloggers who’ve re-posted articles from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, his first client.

Now he’s talking expansion. The Review-Journal’s publisher, Stephens Media in Las Vegas, runs over 70 other newspapers in nine states, and Gibson says he already has an agreement to expand his practice to cover those properties.

And, in my opinion, the newspaper, cowardly, declined to comment as to why it was suing its readers. I’m sure we know why they declined, because it’s damned awkward explaining how suing your users is a good business practice.

After the complete and utter waste of money that the RIAA has wasted, you’d think these other luddite industries, would get a clue. And boy has the RIAA wasted their cash.

The RIAA’s lawsuits weren’t a money maker, though — the record labels spent $64 million in legal costs, and recovered only $1.3 million in damages and settlements.

Gee, imagine if the RIAA had spent that on developing talent. Or putting out music that people like. Just think of how much money they could have made with an investment like that. Instead, they tossed that money down a rat hole. They could have done something positive for their customers, instead they made a bunch of lawyers even richer. Genius move for the RIAA.

Nice to see someone’s copying them than the other way around, right?