Everybody bitches about the RIAA but nobody does anything about it... except the folks over at RIAA Radar. They've created a search site and a bookmarklet (drag this to your links bar) which allows you to browse any music page on Amazon and with a single click, determine if the record was released by a member of the evil RIAA. They've even got a "Top 100" list which shows -- pretty starkly -- just how much control the RIAA members maintain over the music industry and what we hear. (I count 5 non-RIAA releases on this week's chart.) So, if you want to maintain your indie cred, this is the place to go to vett your purchases.
There's also one of the clearest, most concise description of why the RIAA is evil on the Radar's home page:
...just the highlights of the RIAA's practices involve price-fixing, blaming its poor financial state on unfounded digital piracy claims (and in turn, blaming and suing its own consumers), lobbying for changes that hinder technological innovation and change copyright laws, underpaying the artists it represents, invading personal privacy to enforce copyrights, and dismantling entire computer networks just because of their ability (of their users) to share copyrighted files.
