I'm not one to defend the RIAA; I despise it and everything it stands for. But, I believe it should be made clear just what exactly it stands for. Also, in the interest of balance, I will provide a few arguments why the RIAA is not the spawn of Satan.
1: Protecting, If Not Representing, Artists
The RIAA is trying to protect the arts in America. I know that to many this might seem contradictory at first. After all, haven’t peer-to-peer “sharing”* networks enabled a great variety of music to be spread to people who are increasingly unable to hear it? The answer is no. In order for music to truly flourish, the music industry must be well financed. Money is at the root of any industry surviving, and music is no exception. The money is not just being taken away from artists, but also the people behind the scenes who work to produce and transport the records. The organization is trying to protect artists by protecting their work from people who wish to steal it and sell it on the street corner or make illegal copies for whatever reason. Artists are more likely to create works of greater quanitity and quality if they are assured that it will be secured from copyright infringement.
2: The Price Isn't Right
Regarding price: This is a valid argument. There is no denying that the RIAA is guilty of serious price gouging, and several courts have established opinions saying such. However, users stealing music are guilty of possibly forcing the RIAA to jack-up the prices of CD’s in order to entrench copy control devices in the discs. This is not to mention the amount they have had to spent on lawsuits and operations designed to force illegal operations to shut down. If all the people who focus their time and energy on operating, maintaining, and using services like Kazaa would instead spend it on organizing action to stop price gouging, a lot more would be accomplished.
3: Litigation Without Representation
As Lawrence Lessig of Stanford Law School said, “The RIAA is the Recording Industry Association of America. It is not the Recording Industry and Artists Association of America.” The RIAA has said that they are fighting for the rights of artists, and this is dubious at best. They are fighting servers like Morpheus in order to regain lost revenues. However, as I pointed out in my first argument, securing copyrighted material in the marketplace helps ensure artists that their work is safe, which will help more voices be heard.
My inspiration and main source of information for this article was a forum on the PBS website: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/june03/copyright.html
*I use the word sharing in quotation marks because as an RIAA representative points out in the interview above, the peer-to-peer networks do not consist of sharing music. Sharing is the temporary lending of something for a limited period with the intended promise of the user giving it back to the owner. In fact, music is not being shared, it is being widely distributed and held by individuals who do not intend to give it back. It’s a sound point, even if you only agree with it in semantics.