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music copyrights
On Sept. 8, the Recording Industry Association of America filed suit
against 261 people for sharing songs over the internet. The suit
alleges copyright infringements, with damages running as high as
$150,000 for each song made available on peer to peer technology
(P2P).
The RIAA, which represents the five major music industry
conglomerates that have a near monopoly on the industry, filed the
suit as a means of intimating the estimated 60 million Americans who
download music on-line through file-sharing services like Kazaa.
The law suit pits the multi-billionaire record industry against
millions of consumers looking for an alternative to costly CDs, which
average just below $20 a piece. Among those subpoenaed were seniors
and teenagers, including a 12-year-old living in New York City public
housing.
In conjunction with the lawsuits, the RIAA has launched a propaganda
campaign to discourage people from downloading music by attempting to
build consumer sympathy with the artists. In reality, the RIAA
campaign is an attempt to shore up the record industries' declining
profits.
Some artists, such as Metallica, have come out in favor of the
lawsuits, and other artists have declined to comment out of fear from
reprisals from the industry. However, many artists have spoken out
against the industry's actions. Rapper Chuck D said, "Lawsuits on 12-
year-old kids for downloading music, duping a mother into paying a
$2000 settlement for her kid? Those scare tactics are pure Gestapo."
The record industry argues that declining CD sales caused by
downloading music results in declining royalties for artists. In
reality, most artists on major labels never receive any royalties
from CD sales. The industry's standard contracts are written so that
only when record companies make back what they invested in the artist
are CD royalties paid.
The New York Times reported on Sept. 14 that "even the Backstreet
Boys, one of the best-selling acts of the 1990s, did not appear to
have received a penny in CD royalties, their management said." In the
same article, Mickey Melchiondo, of the rock group Ween, said, "I
don't have sympathy for the record companies, they haven't been
paying me royalties anyway."
The industry claims that CD sales have dropped 31 percent since 2000,
when P2P technology began to flourish; however, independent studies
show only an 8-15 percent drop. Most independent record industry
observers put the blame on other factors besides downloading, from
the economy to competing forms of entertainment and consumers'
distaste with what the major labels are releasing.
According to industry insiders, the five mega-parent companies that
control most record labels are putting increasing pressure on those
labels to hold down spending on developing new talent. One executive
told The New York Times (Sept. 9) that "money is not being put into
marketing and A&R because it looks bad on the balance sheet."
As a result, critics say, the quality and diversity of what labels
put out have gone from bad to worse. With fewer options and high
prices, it is not surprising that consumers have looked to the web to
find what they want at cheaper prices.
The RIAA's legal action against consumers is a reflection of how
technology that should benefit consumers and artists is held back by
the profit system.
Whereas before, consumers had to pay nearly $20 per CD or wait
through hours of crap on the radio to catch the songs they like, the
P2P technology has made millions of songs available for music lovers
to enjoy for free and allowed consumers to have easy access to the
songs they actually want to hear.
Many independent labels have welcomed the P2P technology as an
alterative means of getting out their music, which is blacked out
from the radio and major music retail chains.
The record industry conglomerates, with the backing of the courts,
are attacking this technological breakthrough. In place of a system
where a few billionaires and their lawyers decide how and what music
should be distributed, the record companies should be nationalized
and put under the control of artists and consumers.
The internet's low-cost technology has made it possible to make
available an infinite diversity of music to accommodate the diversity
of musical tastes at virtually no cost. The only thing standing in
its way is the capitalist system.
This article was written by Dave Bernt.
