I can't decide who's more pitiable - the RIAA, which continues to follow an ineffectual and hostile strategy - or Fred von Lohmann who not only has to face these goons day in and day out but has to write pieces like his latest on law.com pointing out the blindingly clear. The jihad is not working. It's bad public relations to be suing your customers. It's barely paying for itself (good tidbit there - I had calculated it as a net loss). And by the way, file sharing is still skyrocketing, particularly outside the US where the Cartel's reach is much less.

von Lohmann offers up the same litany of facts that we've all become familiar with. Five hundred new lawsuits a month, most people settle, American music swappers now number somewhere north of 60 million, etc. I don't imagine von Lohmann expects some Cartel exec to read one of these op-eds items and suddenly have a stunning insight "Oh! You mean we could make money off our customers doing what they're already doing instead of flailing at them?" No, it's more of a matter of hearts and minds. Somewhere out there in the future is a turning point in the public consciousness. We'll get there, one restatement of the obvious at a time.

And add one more voice - his - to the "use the ASCAP model" crowd. I wonder if I can spread that meme any better than I spread the "call it a Cartel" meme?