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Should you download illegal music files from the internet? In today’s world, the majority would tell you that it’s wrong or unethical. What I believe is wrong and unethical is the 10,037 people that have been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA Watcher)And of course some would argue all of those 10,037 people deserved it because they knew better. But what about little 12 year old Brianna that was living in public housing, when all she was doing was listening to music she loved; did she know better? The music industry is selling more albums than ever before, the sales aren’t dropping. The RIAA, a trade group with which works for large music companies, has been trying to crack down on music piracy. The RIAA is believed to support the common interest of the artist. I don’t see how they could do that when artists don’t even own the copyrights to their music, the music label does. The RIAA and other entertainment companies simply do not care about their artists’ interests or ours; they care about how to make the next buck. With that type mentality, the RIAA and entertainment companies are suing the consumers that listen to the music, which is not the only alternative they have. If the RIAA and Entertainment companies get their way with the laws they want enforced, much technological innovation will be lost. Within this essay I hope to persuade you into not falling into the feelings that downloading music over the internet is bad or harmful to the artists. Not everyone and especially not the recording industry would agree with me on my views. On the other hand many believe that illegal music downloading is piracy and harmful to the artists. They may also believe that the consumer is more harmful to the artists than the RIAA or recording companies are. This group may also believe internet piracy is the cause to all the problems in music. The RIAA may say that suing the consumers will get a message out and slow down the internet piracy. This group might try to persuade us to download from legal music stores such as Apple’s iTunes or Napster’s new subscription service. I however, would not fall into this group of business people. However, a growing number of people, including myself, believe the RIAA and recording companies are the real threat to recording artists. The RIAA and its members only care about how much money they are receiving not how many people are getting to listen to the music. Recording artists never own their copyrights to the music they write and perform, the record company does. In a speech by Courtney Love, the singer of a rock band named Hole, Courtney states, “Today I want to talk about piracy and music. What is piracy? Piracy is the act of stealing an artist's work without any intention of paying for it. I'm not talking about Napster-type software. I'm talking about major label recording contracts” (Courtney). The average band gets paid around 20 cents per album sold. After costs of video production, mixing and the rest of the process, “the band may as well be working at a 7-Eleven” (Courtney). The speech Courtney makes goes on to state, “It's piracy when the RIAA lobbies to change the bankruptcy law to make it more difficult for musicians to declare bankruptcy. Some musicians have declared bankruptcy to free themselves from truly evil contracts. In 1995 TLC declared bankruptcy after they received less than 2 percent of the $175 million earned by their CD sales. That was about 40 times less than the profit that was divided among their management, production and record companies” (Courtney). Courtney’s states significant information when she says “The 273,000 working musicians in America make about $30,000 a year. Only 15 percent of American Federation of Musicians members work steadily in music“(Courtney). The Recording companies harm the artists more than the consumer could. The recording companies own the artist’s work by contract. Receiving less than 30 cents per album you sell is nothing compared to the amount of money you owe the record company after all the promotion costs (Courtney). In a letter that Courtney wrote to the RIAA, she states, “Corrupt recording agreements forced the heirs of Jimi Hendrix ("Purple Haze," "All Along the Watchtower" and "Stone Free") to work menial jobs while his catalog generated millions of dollars each year for Universal Music“ (ARTIST RIGHTS AND RECORD COMPANIES). The RIAA is not looking for the interest of the artists; they are only for the interest of making the record labels money. The RIAA isn’t only a threat to the artists; they are also becoming a large threat to technological innovation. In a March of 2005 court hearing, MGM Studios v. Grokster, MGM is set to attack innovation of new technologies. They are asking the Supreme Court to rewrite the Betamax (Induce act), which may help the cases against peer to peer (p2p) companies. If the company can prove the p2p application is "capable of substantial non-infringing uses”, the court could use the ruling from the Betamax case from 1985 (File Sharing Has Supreme Moment). Many large entertainment companies have rallied behind MGM for the desires of their company. Wired Magazine, a tech magazine writes, “Justice Stephen Breyer said that devices like the Xerox copy machine, VCR and iPod could have a ‘vast number of infringing uses,’ leading him to wonder how inventors could develop new products without being sued. Justice Antonin Scalia asked how much time an inventor should be given to increase the number of lawful uses” (File Sharing Has Supreme Moment). Wired continues to state, “How do you "give inventor the confidence" to make a new product, Justice David Souter said, when the item could be used for infringement? The iPod can be stocked with music from legitimate CDs or from other means, like illegal content from downloaded from a P2P service” (File Sharing Has Supreme Moment). Scott Rafer the CEO of Feedster states, “If we have to look (at) every piece of inbound stuff that comes in for copyright materials, then most of the internet tools that we use every day would be illegal”( File Sharing Has Supreme Moment). Jason Schultz, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation; which represents StreamCast Networks states, “all these internet technologies share this common mass-copying capability: e-mail, web servers, web browsers, basic hard drives," then Schultz continues by stating, "There's no principal distinction between (P2P) and other internet technologies in the way it's designed”( File Sharing Has Supreme Moment). If the RIAA and entertainment companies get their way, much innovation with technology could be lost. As Francis Crick, the grandson of Francis Crick the discoverer of the double helix, states, “if the entertainment companies succeed in shutting down peer-to-peer networks, the case will impair the development of new technologies in the United States”(Camping Out for the Grokster Case). The RIAA and entertainment companies are going after our innovations, why would they if they make so much money from suing its consumers. With all of the funding the RIAA receives, they still continue to look for more ways to make money. The RIAA has sued approximately 10,037 people since September 2003. The RIAA knows it cannot stop people from downloading illegal music online, as the president of the RIAA Cary Sherman states, “Our aim is not to completely eliminate music piracy or illegal peer-to-peer services altogether” (Illegal music sites 'here to stay'). Okay, so the RIAA knows they cannot stop it, why must they continue to sue its customers? Well, the average settlement from the 10,037 people sued is around $3,000 (RIAA Watch). By doing simple calculations the RIAA has received at least $30,111,000 from settlements alone. Do any of the artists that wrote and performed the music see any of this $30+ million? Since the artists do not own the copyrights to their music, they won’t see a penny. Courtney speech implies music downloads are not a harm to the recording industry, by stating “There were a billion music downloads last year, but music sales are up. Where's the evidence that downloads hurt business? Downloads are creating more demand.” (Courtney). In a research article in June 2004 by Harvard’s business school states, “Our research shows that people do not download entire CDs. They download a few songs, typically the hits that one would also hear on a Top 40 station. This suggests that P2P is much like the radio, a great tool to promote new music. The music industry has of course long recognized that giving away samples of music for free over the airwaves can stimulate sales”(Music Downloads: Pirates—or Customers?). Some Artists believe the “technology [of p2p applications] is an important tool they can use to reach new audiences. About 20 artists, including Heart, Chuck D, DJ Spooky and Brian Eno, filed a separate friend-of-the-court brief in support of the P2P services” (Supreme Showdown for P2P's Future). Chuck D, a recording artist helps put it in perspective by stating, "Technology giveth and it taketh away, and the industry knows this," Chuck D said. "The horseshoe makers probably got upset at the train manufacturers because (the new industry) took away their transport dominance, just as the train manufacturers probably got mad at the airline industry." (Rappers in Disharmony on P2P). The recording industry urges its consumers to buy from legal downloading services. What about legal download services? A small list of legal download services include, Napster v2, Apple’s iTunes, Musicmatch, and the list goes on. The main issue with downloading through these services is that you can’t even transfer them to a mp3 player. It isn’t considered fair use. Apple’s iTunes sells music that can be placed onto their mp3 player, the iPod. Apple alone has sold more than eight million iPods, and exceeded its 200 million song downloads mark in December 2004 (iTunes hits 200 million download mark) The problem with iTunes is that you cannot transfer the music to other mp3 players. Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs didn’t license out Apple’s FairPlay technology which is protects the songs from being transferred to other computers and devices (Slay the iPod). Why would I want to buy something that only can be used by a device that ranges from $250 and up? http://www.mp3tunes.com/ is a service that allows you to download music, and actually keep it. After purchasing you’ll actually own the song, not the type of ownership like some subscription services use where you may only play the music as long as your subscription is renewed. So, is it right to download illegal music files from the internet? The music files are copyrighted by huge record companies which don’t make decisions for the artist; they make decisions for the company. Their business model isn’t what I would call right, suing their consumers; it’s just wrong. If the record companies would try a little harder to make friends and fewer enemies, they could be more successful. Should we as consumers make decisions that suit us? Or should we make a decision that would help some CEO buy his 16 year old daughter a new Mercedes Benz? In the past year the sales for albums have gone up (Nielsen SoundScan), but I thought the record companies are losing money due to illegal downloading? The RIAA lies to us by and invades our privacy. They believe they can invade someone’s privacy to enforce a copyright. Is that ethical? You must ask yourself these questions to recognize who is the bad guy in these situations. In a Wired Magazine article, Chuck D puts everything in perspective for me by stating, "The record industry is hypocritical and the domination has to be shared. P2P to me means 'power to the people,'" Chuck D said. "And let's get this to a balance, and that's what we're talking about"(Rappers in Disharmony on P2P). Works cited ARTIST RIGHTS AND RECORD COMPANIES. 12 May. 2005 < http://www.gerryhemingway.com/piracy2.html>. Dean, Katie . "Rappers in Disharmony on P2P." Wired Magazine. 01 Oct 2003. May. 2005 < http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,60650,00.html >. Dean, Katie. "File Supreme Showdown for P2P's Future." Wired Magazine. 28 March 2005. May 2005 < http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,67010,00.htmlhtml >. Dean, Katie. "File Sharing Has Supreme Moment." Wired Magazine. 29 March 2005. May 2005 < http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,67060,00.html >. Dean, Katie. "Camping Out for the Grokster Case." Wired Magazine. 29 March 2005. May 2005 < http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,67061,00.html>. Fried, Ina. "iTunes hits 200 million download mark." CNET Tech News.16 December 2004. May 2005 < http://news.com.com/iTunes+hits+200+million+download+mark/2100-1027_3-5494390.html>. Love, Courtney. Speech 16 May 2004. May 2005 < http://www.rapcoalition.org/Courtney's%20Math.htm>. Murphy, Gary. "Slay the iPod." Blog. 01 Oct 2003. May. 2005 < http://blog.teledyn.com/node/2291>. Nielsen SoundScan. 2004. 12 May. 2005 < http://www.answers.com/topic/nielsen-soundscan>. RIAA Watcher. "RIAA WATCH." Blog. 09 April 2005. May. 2005 < http://sharenomore.blogspot.com/>. Silverthorne, Sean. " Music Downloads: Pirates—or Customers?. 21 June 2004. May 2005 < http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4206&t=innovation>. Waters, Darren. "Illegal music sites 'here to stay'." BBC News. 08 January 2003. May 2005 < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2636235.stm>. Useful links http://www.downhillbattle.org/defense/ - Help defend http://www.easynews.com/ - Download anything http://www.boycott-riaa.com – Boycott the RIAA http://www.eff.org/share/petition/ - Sign the petition http://www.purevolume.com – listen to indie music artists
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