Nothing short of another PR blunder (and believe me, we aren’t short of those. Heard the one about the dead guy?) could have dealt a bigger blow to the RIAA’s credibility: An artist, one of their own and a high-profile one at that, has not only come out against their actions (there have been plenty of those. Did you know Avril Lavigne is a Canadian against the RIAA? No? Not many people do), but has recorded a song, a single no less, roasting them in irony.

Weird Al’s new single, Don’t Download This Song, to the melody of We Are The World, lists all kinds of reasons why you shouldn’t:

‘Cause you start out stealin’ songs, then you’re robbin’ liquor stores / And sellin’ crack and running over schoolkids with your car…Oh, you don’t want to mess with the RI-double-A / They’ll sue you if you burn that CD-R / It doesn’t matter if you’re a grandma or a seven-year-old girl / They’ll treat you like the evil hard-bitten criminal scum you are

And my favorite line,

Don’t take away money from artists just like me / How else can I afford another solid-gold Humvee? / And diamond-studded swimming pools? These things don’t grow on trees

One of the RIAA’s favorite lines is how most artists aren’t nearly as rich as the pop stars you see on Cribs. And to say nothing about their own hypocrisy in that area (10-30¢ on the dollar is not good enough if you care about your “starving artists”), it’s good to see at least one that isn’t starving take a shot at the greed of the industry by sounding the trumpet of irony.

And the final blow: the song is available for download – legitimately and in 160k MP3 – from the Al-sponsored website dontdownloadthissong.com. Happy downloading, and try not to get sued!