Richard Marx, One Of The Artists Jammie Thomas Supposedly Shared, Blasts Verdict, Apologizes

from the want-no-part-of-this dept

And the backlash from the Jammie Thomas verdict continues... First there was Moby blasting the RIAA, but he's been a long term RIAA critic. Now, however, singer Richard Marx has come out against the ruling. This is interesting for a variety of reasons. Marx isn't exactly known as a "counter culture" type who would fight back against the RIAA (and, in fact, says he's against unauthorized file sharing). But, more importantly, one of his songs is included in the 24 songs that Thomas was on trial for sharing. For that, he now feels really bad:

As a longtime professional songwriter, I have always objected to the practice of illegal downloading of music. I have also always, however, been sympathetic to the average music fan, who has been consistently financially abused by the greedy actions of major labels. These labels, until recently, were responsible for the distribution of the majority of recorded music, and instead of nurturing the industry and doing their best to provide the highest quality of music to the fans, they predominantly chose to ream the consumer and fill their pockets.

So now we have a "judgment" in a case of illegal downloading, and it seems to me, especially in these extremely volatile economic times, that holding Ms. Thomas-Rasset accountable for the continuing daily actions of hundreds of thousands of people is, at best, misguided and at worst, farcical. Her accountability itself is not in question, but this show of force posing as judicial come-uppance is clearly abusive. Ms. Thomas-Rasset, I think you got a raw deal, and I'm ashamed to have my name associated with this issue.

Once again, even the artists that the RIAA is supposedly "supporting" are angry about the RIAA's own actions.

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