Despite some universities
refusing to act as the RIAA's henchmen in its campaign against their students, the group says the effort to
bully students into paying "discounted settlements" is working to help stop file-sharing. Of course, it says that about everything it tries (even when
it's not true), but you'd imagine if any of these attempts really were successful, it wouldn't need to keep coming up with new ones. Anyhow, just in case there was any doubt as to how out of touch the RIAA is with the market and its customers, its general counsel and EVP
wonders why students would continue to download from file-sharing networks when they have access to
discounted or free subscription services. Uh, maybe it's because students realize
how lame those services are? When students choose to keep illegally downloading even though they have free legal alternatives available, it illustrates that this isn't just an issue of them wanting to not have to pay for music, as the RIAA would like you to believe. It's an issue of the RIAA and its member labels not being able to deliver an attractive product to consumers. But why bother to innovate and come up with something people would want to buy, when you can just
sue all your customers instead?