The RIAA need to stop wasting limited court resources on these frivolous lawsuits, and embrace the power of the internet to make sure their artists' concerts are filled, at $200+ per ticket. After all, you'll only fork out that much for a concert ticket if you have HEARD the music and actually LIKE it.
There's one ever so small problem there. In most cases the record companies are not engaged in 360 degree deals that get them part of the artist ticket sales (as much as they're trying to do that these days). If you're already a large artist - why would you?. The companies that make up the RIAA (and others) want to maximise their part of the pie, not give their part away so someone else can make all the money.
Having said that I haven't much sympathy for their situation either.
On what basis?
Errm, on the basis of personal opinion? How else are you going to quantify if something is funny? It is subjective and in the eye of the beholder.
Old programmers never die, they just hit account block limit.