Not sure what I think of this, but Michael Scott points out a project being set up to try to put Joel Tenenbaum in touch with the musicians whose music he downloaded and shared. The idea is to find out what the musicians think of the RIAA's lawsuit and the $675,000 fine. After the Jammie Thomas ruling, for example, Richard Marx, one of the musicians whose music was involved, came out and condemned the RIAA's action. Considering that the RIAA is out there claiming this is all for the artists, it would be worthwhile to find out what those artists have to say.

I have to admit that I hadn't looked at the actual list of 30 songs that were a part of the trial, but I'm pretty surprised to see some of the names on the list. For example, it includes Nine Inch Nails -- and we've already had plenty of blog posts about Trent Reznor's new business models which succeed by encouraging file sharing, recognizing that with more people listening to the music, there are many other creative ways to make more money. In fact, Reznor famously has told fans at concerts that they should download the music that was released under his (former) major record label. I'd love to see the RIAA let us know how much of the $675,000 will get to Reznor. The spreadsheet on the Project EquillibRIAA also lists Radiohead (who has spoken out against the RIAA tactics) and Courtney Love (who has been very explicit in condemning the RIAA's actions since way back in the Napster days), though I don't see either of them actually listed on Joel's list.

Either way, I agree it would be interesting to see what the musicians have to say -- whether they agree with the RIAA's strategy or not... and if they expect to see a dime of the $675,000.

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