James Delahunty
29 Aug 2007 20:33
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has published a comprehensive report on the history of the Recording Industry Association of America's campaign against file sharing in the United States. The intriguing report proves how even after four years and 20,000 targets, the use of file-sharing and Internet music piracy in general has simply failed to decline in the U.S..
"Despite the RIAA's legal campaign, file-sharing is more popular than ever," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann. "History will treat this as a shameful chapter in the history of the music industry, when record companies singled out random music fans for disproportionate penalties. Artists must be compensated, but these lawsuits aren't putting money in any creator's pocket."
Attacks on file-sharing by the RIAA has led a lot of people to safer and less detectable methods such as burning and exchanging CDs among friends and sharing on members-only "darknets." The EFF also called on Universities to help artists get compensated for the use of their work but also to protect students from costly legal problems by insisting on a blanket license for their students, collecting a reasonable regular payment to allow sharing to continue.
"This is about money, not morality," said von Lohmann. "With a blanket licensing solution, the RIAA can call off the lawyers and the lobbyists, and universities can get back to education instead of copyright enforcement."
Download the full report (PDF): http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/riaa_at_four.pdf