RIAA misses beat in attack on music piracy

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) wants to hack into personal computers and delete music files, and to destroy online file sharing services like Kazaa and Morpheus. In their attacks on everyday citizens, the RIAA has mistakenly tried to solve the piracy problem by being destructive rather than creating solutions.

Over the past several years, the RIAA has waged war on online file sharing of music, taking the fight to Congress, law enforcement, universities, and consumers’ personal computers.

The RIAA has cried out against the rapid advancements in Internet technology that have allowed people to download music files from anywhere, without the industry’s approval. Yet the organization has provided no solutions to the fundamental problem — people want to get their music online.

The organization’s business model is naive and obsolete. They have failed to join the burgeoning Internet marketplace that has grown over the past few years. As a result, consumers have filled the gap by making their own file sharing software. Now the RIAA thinks it can destroy legitimate computer software while at not providing any alternative.

The RIAA’s business model is based entirely on the distribution of CDs through physical stores — they have provided no way for current songs to be obtained online. There is also no means for a consumer to buy a single song, since “singles” CDs have never succeeded due to their high prices.

Often people will be interested in only one or two songs from an album. In an age when we can instantly handle banking transactions online, or order groceries for delivery to our doorstep, it is senseless to not allow consumers to also get music online.

Napster, the popular file sharing service, was shut down by the RIAA in July 2000. Since then, the RIAA has failed to make any progress towards releasing an industry-sanctioned means of legally downloading music.

RIAA pushes its agenda in Congress by lining politicians’ pockets with money. Senator Fritz Hollings (D-SC) received over a quarter million dollars from the entertainment industry in the last election cycle — making the movie, TV, and music industries his second largest source of funds. In recent years he has become notorious for supporting the entertainment industry in legislature that has threatened to trample consumer fair use rights.

The RIAA is trying to get a bill allowing them to hack into computers and check for pirated music files. In July of last year, Representative Howard Berman (D-CA), who has the entertainment industry as his largest campaign contributor, proposed a bill that would give copyright holders permission to disrupt peer-to-peer networks — including by flooding a server with requests in a denial-of-service attack — without facing the legal repercussions that would normally apply. This attempt to give the industry a get-out-of-jail-for-free card is indicative of the entertainment industry’s ruthless and hostile attitude towards file sharing.

Many computer trade groups and Internet Service Providers are firmly opposed to Berman’s bill and other tactics the RIAA has pursued. The RIAA has been nominated for Internet Villain of the year in the UK Internet Industry Awards for “supporting ‘right to hack’ proposals and other unworkable solutions to curb copyright abuse.”

To restrict copying of CDs, record companies have begun exploring Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies. By tampering with the content of the CD, the schemes often interfere with consumers’ ability to play the CD as they choose. The CDs often do not work in computer CD drives. So far, all of the CD copy protection methods developed have been defeated.

Internet users will always find a way to share files, despite whatever restrictions media companies come up with in an attempt to lock content. Efforts to find ways of disguising music content to prevent copying are not only a waste of time, but infringe on consumers’ fair use rights. The courts have acknowledged that consumers have the right to transfer music to other locations (via a computer, or MP3 player) and to make a backup copy of a CD.

Broadband Internet connections are becoming commonplace and CD burners are sold with almost every new computer. The typical home computer user has everything they need to make their own CDs. There is no longer any real need to go to a store and buy a CD. The RIAA should provide a fast and legal means of downloading songs and making CDs at home.

The RIAA might claim that helping people to download music would increase illegal distribution of MP3s. On the contrary, it might actually decrease it. If people start using the unsanctioned file sharing services less, the availability of songs on the shared networks will decrease, making it harder for people to get songs illegally.

Certainly media piracy is a significant problem and should be dealt with using the full extent of current copyright law. During this past holiday season, the RIAA broke up many illegal CD duplication outfits and distribution points in Manhattan and Los Angeles. This is the type of action that should be taken to combat piracy. Attacking online file sharing networks has very little long-term benefit to the industry.

In its war on piracy, the RIAA has shut down or taken legal action against Napster, Aimster, Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster, and others. The RIAA makes the mistake of assuming that all online file sharing is piracy. This is simply not true. File sharing can be used to exchange music and other types of media that are in the public domain. Independent artists also use online services to share their music and gain recognition.

The RIAA continuously complains that file sharing has cut into their sales. They said this even at the peak of the Internet boom, when their sales were at their highest. With recent measures that restrict consumer freedom to use music as desired, it is no surprise that the conglomerate’s sales are going down.

The RIAA is using file sharing as a scapegoat to blame for their now-decreasing sales. They are using this excuse to get Congress to pass laws giving them unprecedented power to interfere with computer users’ activities.

The RIAA is refusing to acknowledge other factors that could be contributing to its decrease in sales — for example, the current state of the economy, excessively high CD prices, or increases in competing independent records.

The RIAA should create a web-based online service for sale of music. Songs should be offered for download at a reasonable price — say a dollar or so per song. Since online sales would not involve the production costs of physical CDs, albums could be sold at lower prices, which would help to attract music listeners who think present-day CD prices are too high.

The servers should be fast so that songs can be downloaded in a matter of minutes over broadband connections. A wide range of popular artists should be available, with the service providing good search and categorization capabilities.

A service like this would provide convenience superior to that of the present file sharing programs. By providing these benefits, plus the legitimacy of legally downloading music, the RIAA’s service would attract new customers—thus helping to increase their sales.

The RIAA is faced with a choice: they can build a superior online file sharing service which would likely make them a lot of money, or they can continue trying to kill every new file sharing service that pops up, spending artists’ earnings on expensive lawsuits.

John Davin is a junior in Computer Science. He welcomes all responsible replies to his article.