A email was send to all students on September 8th by the Dean of Student Affairs warning them about the lawsuits that are now being charged to file sharers by the RIAA. The RIAA (Recording Industry of America) is now pressing lawsuits against file sharers who are down and uploading music illegally though file sharing networks like Grokster and Kazaa. The new policy is called the House Resolution 2752 and the consequences are simple, up to 5 years in jail and fines up to $150,000 for downloading music. The file sharing technology was brought into the spotlight after Napster was sued by Metallica for sharing files against the artist’s permission. The lawsuit eventually shut down Napster and brought a whole new message to the recording industry; people are getting music for free and we’re “ripping off” the music industry. The lawsuits, which seem to be a reaction to the consumer’s loss of public market target the ‘big fish’ or large consumer allowing uploads over the internet. When stated in June, people didn’t think it was serious until Loyola University was forced to give up the names of several students who were suspected of uploading music illegally resulting in a few hundred thousand dollar lawsuits and just this fall at UMass Amherst, students have already felt the wraith of the RIAA. People are being targeted by the RIAA and what’s even scarier is the possibility of be send to jail for just downloading music.
When downloading started it seemed simply enough. Programs like Napster allowed you access to hundreds of mp3s over the computer that you could download. It wasn’t that much of a big deal until we found out that the mp3s could be burned to CDs and then you didn’t have to actually go to the record store anymore to get your music. You could just sit in front of your computer and in time, the downloads would be finished. Downloading music was one of the most interesting forms of new media to come around since the invention of television. To few it was a way to gain exposure to artists you had never heard before or listen to songs you didn’t want to pay 15 bucks just to have the cd player. The technology progressed and after the Napster shutdown came Morpheus and after that more followed. Downloading and uploading has become a business, a business of music outside of the recording industry and that made a few people mad. Just like anything else, the music industry is a business and if file sharers are “stealing from the man”, there should be consequences right? Maybe some punishment is in line here, but not this. The idea of suing your own customers is not going to make you anymore popular or favored. Consumers and artists alike have now cited a hatred for the RIAA, because of these policies the RIAA seems more favorable of corporate America. It’s all about making money. Artists that are making millions of dollars off their records don’t have to worry about getting exposure. What about the band that no one’s ever heard of? File sharing and downloading music is like a new way of “word of mouth” for the unknown artists of the world. Such a policy would silence them forever. The RIAA doesn’t realize they’re completely shutting out their customers.
So if these lawsuits is a plan to solve the problem of file sharing to the RIAA, what happens next? There are all these file sharing networks out there and instead of being shutdown they stay online with the giant gray cloud of the RIAA over their heads. Other sites have moved on from the RIAA policy and adapted to it. The ITunes music store at www.apple.com has been charging for the download of mp3s. For the cost of $1 you can choose from a library of 500,000 songs. Other sites such as music net.com, listen.com, and music now.com all offer similar charges but are charging subscription fees as well. There are of course restrictions to these pay websites, besides the fact that you have to pay to download music, which is enough for steer people away completely. There is limited access to the websites, and the available library of songs consist only of the songs by artists that allow their material to be there. These kind of regulations tend to shut out one of the main ideals for downloading music and that’s exposure, this kind of websites are the death of independent labels and indie rock bands. Mp3s are downloaded in streams, meaning some of them you can listen to only on your computer while only some are burnable. Buying mp3s has even brought back Napster showing that some people are going along with this compromise. Paying for downloads is just another way of saying that the RIAA wants you to buy more music and not download it. With these new sites, you basically can stay at home and buy your music through the internet rather than going to the record store, which just seems like another way to make money rather than a compromise. Downloading has basically become another form of shopping. The rules and regulations of the new RIAA policy are holding back the idea of file sharing mp3s and making it “illegal”, yet programs like Kazaa are still online. These pay sites seem like a risk free possibility to the dangerous game of downloading now only if you want to pay for your music online.
“It just doesn’t make sense to me.” says Ari Silberner, a sophomore Information Technology major. “The thing about downloading music, files, pictures and whatever else you want download off the internet. There is no way the government is going to be able to stop it in the first place. All these years they’ve spent their time and money in order to stop us from downloading, whether it’s operating a system or system files, or just files you can put onto your computer. There’s always been a way for a hacker to get around it no matter how hard a company tries. So why would the government even spent the money on that when they could be cracking down on other things.” The main reason why the RIAA is putting a suffocating hold on it’s customers is because the buyers are getting music without the recording industry’s help. The people are doing things on their own now, burning and ripping cds getting music heard and that’s what the important thing is. The RIAA doesn’t feel like they’re getting their part of the deal here so these lawsuits came up.
As of 2003, there were a estimated 12 million file sharers in America. There is just no way that the RIAA is going to sue that many people but what people don’t know can hurt them. Half of the nation’s down loaders are teenagers, most of them still in high school. A lot of them download music because they can’t afford the music that they want to listen so they download it. Since it’s there they’re going to do, they really don’t know any better. Maybe they have a favorite song or maybe they want to listen to a cd before they buy it, no matter what the cause they’re a target and they don’t even know it yet. The RIAA stated it’s not targeting anyone in particular, just those guilty of sharing copyrighted material. The real question remains; is this the right way to handle this sort of thing? Isn’t what’s on your computer your business and no one else’s? Wouldn’t it be invasion of privacy? Well, the answer is sadly no, because nothing is a secret over the internet. If your connected then you can look at the world and the world can look right back at you.
The RIAA lawsuits are real and college students are being targeted. The students from Loyola are now in the middle of a legal battle for thousands of dollars. Hearing about this you could ask the question; how is this going to effect me? “Number one thing is to become informed.” says Tim Keefe, Dean of Student Affairs. “Make sure you understand what the issues, what you’re putting out there. Beware of the risks and how the technology works.” The technology surrounding downloading music seems basic enough to understand but not everyone knows about the risks of uploading music. The internet has been a big part of the American culture for a number of years now and because of the RIAA lawsuit’s the internet is now a threat. We have a presence on the internet and now it is a risk to do certain things on it. We have a responsibility strangely, with using the internet. There are consequences using it in the wrong way and the only real thing we can do with this is try to work a way around it.