Is the music industry filled with people with room temperature IQs? Last night I flagged this post from Mathew Ingram, and this morning I found the whole story here, on Download Squad. Here's what happened, via Download Squad:

Our editorializing [ed: about an RIAA suit] seems to have ruffled the feathers of an IFPI executive who is now threatening action, not against us, but against another blog who simply linked to our piece. In an effort to quell what Paul Birch of Revolver Records calls, "malicious statements and blogs on the internet" he has threatened Andrew Dubber of the blog New Music Strategies with veiled words about lawsuits, and by directly threatening to file a formal complaint against him with the University of Central England, Dubber's employer. All because in the course of discussion on the topic Andrew Dubber's blog follows exclusively he felt it relevant to link to something we wrote.

That's a SLAPP suit if I ever saw one. But wait - there's more! Again from Mathew Ingram, we find out just how deep the vast well of stupidity in the music industry runs. Here's Jay Rosenthal, who runs SoundExchange - they collect royalties from internet radio (et. al.):

“I sincerely am starting to hate the Internet. I know you see the Internet as some incredible invention that has opened the door to unlimited distribution of music -- and your lofty goal is to bring music to as many as possible. But all I see is a tidal wave of artist abuse.”

I think I can summarize Rosenthal's idea: "Stop the world, I want to get off!". Can someone page Professor Peabody? We have a ticket for one, one way to 1978.

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