Let me begin by saying, like many others before me, that it’s one of life’s great mysteries how Rob Enderle still has a job as a technology consultant, and even more puzzling how reporters for major news organizations continue to use him as a source. Before we get to the latest Enderle boondoggle, here’s what the bio on his blog says about him:

Rob is President and Principal Analyst of the Enderle Group, a forward looking emerging technology advisory firm, and one of the most recognized commentators on tech. Before founding the Enderle Group, Rob held leading positions with Forrester Research and the Giga Information Group.

That’s one of the funniest (in a bad way) bio’s I’ve read in a long time. “Forward looking?” Enderle has been more consistently wrong, by a wide margin, than any other tech commentator on the planet. What he’s “recognized” for is his utter lack of knowledge, inability to fact-check, and ridiculous statements that have earned him a lifetime “Jackass” award. John Gruber over at Daring Fireball (arbiter of the “Jackass of the Week” award) has been following Enderle’s misadventures for many years. You can read through his many articles taking Enderle to task. On to the latest and greatest from The Rob.
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We’ve known for a long time that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is an organization without a clue, who’s missing the boat on the evolution of the industry into an electronic medium. But their recent lawsuit against a man for ripping his legally purchased CD’s into MP3’s on his computer puts the RIAA into the dumbass hall of fame. RIAA slimeball laywer Ira Schwartz, in a brief filed earlier this month, argued that MP3 files made on a computer from legally bought CDs are “unauthorized copies” of copyrighted recordings.

What’s next? Is the RIAA going to go after everyone who’s ever copied their vinyl LP’s onto cassette tape so they could play them in a walkman or in their car?