Hypebot reports that the RIAA is in the midst of laying off a significant portion of their staff. They quote one anonymous source as saying, "It is about 90-100+ people across the US and global offices--anti-piracy, coordinated IFPI/BPI etc--trust me it's a bloodbath."
The same source claims the RIAA will make an official announcement next week and goes on to state that the RIAA will be uniting with the BPI (the British Phonographic Industry--the British version of the RIAA) and the IFPI (the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry--the body involved in the current Pirate Bay trial now taking place in Sweden and being followed, among other places, here at Neowin).
Digital Music News claims the number of RIAA staff being let go is more in the range of 30. Even though the RIAA has not released the exact number, RIAA representative Cara Duckworth said, "I can confirm there were layoffs. As you can imagine, the music community is not immune from the impact of these tough economic times."
Techdirt speculates that it will not be long before we hear that the staff cuts were due to file-sharing. But, they write, "The real issue is that the RIAA has basically managed to run one of the dumbest, most self-defeating strategies over the last decade. Rather than helping major record labels adjust to the changing market, it continually, repeatedly and publicly destroyed its own reputation and the reputation of the labels--each time shrinking their potential market by blaming the very people they should have been working to turn into customers."
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