Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade group representing the US recording industry, and the body responsible for certifying gold and platinum albums and singles in the USA. For more information about sales data see List of best selling albums and list of best selling singles. The RIAA was formed in 1952 to administer the RIAA equalization curve, applied to vinyl records during cutting and playback.
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2 P2P child pornography campaign 3 Timeline of RIAA Lawsuits 4 Officers of the RIAA 5 Rhetoric of the RIAA 6 See also 7 External links |
The RIAA has been at the heart of the peer-to-peer MP3 file-swapping controversy. Its attempts to defend the interests of its members have been viewed by some as detrimental to the interests of both consumers and artists, and benefitting only the larger record labels which comprise the RIAA. Opponents of the RIAA claim that the trade group is in effect a cartel which artificially inflates and fixes prices for CDss. Such allegations note that the Big Five (BMG, EMI, Sony, Universal Music, and Warner) distribute at least 95% of all music CDs sold worldwide.
Hilary Rosen, the RIAA's president and chief executive officer from 1988 to 2003, was an outspoken critic of peer to peer file sharing, and under her direction, the RIAA has waged an aggressive legal campaign to halt the practice.
The digitisation of music and the availability of inexpensive digital communications and file-swapping technologies has led to a crisis of confidence for the recording industry. Some people believe that these technologies may remove the need for physical distribution of recorded music altogether, threatening the existence of many of the large conglomerates that currently dominate the marketing and distribution of music. The RIAA contends that unregulated file-swapping is "piracy".
The RIAA has sought to protect its members' interests by political lobbying for changes in copyright and criminal law, and by litigation under existing laws. As a result, the RIAA's members now have special laws enacted in the United States to protect and reinforce their business models. These include the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. These laws are helping them to sue many large peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks.
The RIAA's extreme unpopularity with certain segments of the Internet community has made its website a popular target for malicious hackers, and it has been repeatedly broken into and defaced.
Many people believe that the RIAA has done little to garner positive goodwill from consumers. Some believe that their primary goal is to retain the status quo and prevent lowered recording and distribution costs from reaching consumers. To these observers, they appear to spend a considerable amount of money lobbying lawmakers to enact legislation that erodes fair use rights and turns the tables on the copyright bargain. (The copyright bargain is the social contract that allows artists the right to prevent copying of their works - a right that some think of as contrary to natural law - in exchange for the promotion of science and the useful arts).
Recently, several industry companies as well as RIAA opponents have claimed that the group artificially expands its membership by listing companies which are not member of RIAA, and do not wish to be. Boycott-RIAA.com founder Bill Evans noted that the RIAA's website began listing both Matador Records and Lookout Records on its website as members.[1] However, neither company is actually a member. While Evans may seem to many to be a biased, and therefore unreliable source, both companies confirmed his story.
Matador Records' Patrick Armory stated that the company is not an RIAA member and does not wish to be. He said this was not the first time they had been listed erroneously on the site. In order to remedy the situation, he said, "I've now sent them three, count them, emails demanding that we be removed! But to no avail." Armory contacted Amy Weiss of the RIAA, a former Clinton deputy press secretary, but received no response. The listing was then removed two days later, however. At that time, Bill Evans claims Lookout Records contacted him to say that their name had just been added to the list.
On September 6 2003 the RIAA started a campaign against peer to peer programs, claiming that they facilitated child pornography. RIAA President Cary Sherman told the U.S. Senate that adults could use P2P networks to lure children into having sex. He added that "a significant percentage of the files available to these 13 million new users [of P2P networks] per month are pornography, including child pornography." News story.
This is being viewed by many in the Internet community as an attempt to discredit P2P networks by associating them with something that stops any defense against the claim (anyone defending peer to peer would risk being accused of supporting child pornography) and is likely to make some people (e.g. parents) turn their attention to this subject with a view to banning P2P.
Some people view this as hypocrisy, arguing that the past actions of RIAA members show that they are willing to "exploit" children by exposing them to songs that parents might find unsuitable. A Commentary and a [1] News story.
It is also argued against the RIAA argument that the postal system, the photographic film and camera makers, candy makers and public roads all help child pornography to be made and/or distributed, and that P2P is nothing new in that regard.
It is important to note that in public communications, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Bainwol, et al, have avoided the use of the proper term "copyright infringement" in favor of the hyperbole and intentional misrepresentation of the alleged wrongdoing, by use of the terms "pirate" and "piracy". This suggests that they are intentionally misrepresenting the nature of the problem they allege is occuring, since there is no murder nor robbery on the high seas occuring with copyright infringement.
P2P music file-swapping controversy
P2P child pornography campaign
Timeline of RIAA Lawsuits
.Officers of the RIAA
Rhetoric of the RIAA
The RIAA continues to use the term "piracy" when they mean "copyright infringement". The use of this term is misleading, since under the USC Title 18, Chapter 81, Section 1652, the term "pirate" and "piracy", applied to a US citizen is defined thusly :
"CITE 18 USC Sec. 1652 01/26/98
TITLE 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I - CRIMES
CHAPTER 81 - PIRACY AND PRIVATEERING
Sec. 1652. Citizens as pirates
Whoever, being a citizen of the United States, commits any murder
or robbery, or any act of hostility against the United States, or
against any citizen thereof, on the high seas, under color of any
commission from any foreign prince, or state, or on pretense of
authority from any person, is a pirate, and shall be imprisoned for
life."
Thus, it is clear that piracy or "pirate" is not the correct term for copyright infringement. In fact, neither the words "pirate" nor "piracy"
are found within the Copyright Act of 1976, nor the DMCA of 1998, nor
have any of the filesharing lawsuits, been filed charging "piracy".See also
External links