Five questions about the RIAA and music downloading

The Recording Industry Association of America (or RIAA) is “the trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry. Its mission is to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members’ creative and financial vitality.” This statement is directly from the about us section of their website (which is I linked to above).

But this is not about what the RIAA does, but more about how they affect you and your music listening. Found below are five frequently asked questions about the RIAA and downloading music (99% of which is ILLEGAL in any way shape or form, sorry about that).

1. The simple question: Is downloading music off the internet really illegal even though it is so simple and easy to do?

As stated earlier, YES. The only exceptions being if you got your music from Trent Rezner, Radiohead or the public domain. Both Trent and Radiohead gave away albums via the choose your own price economic model, aka you can get it for free or donate some money to your favorite artist for their work. The public domain is made up of works whose copyright has run out and therefore anyone can obtain it.

2. Can the RIAA sue me for downloading music (even just one song)?

Yes. Yes. Yes. and Yes. The odds, however, are in your favor IF you have disabled the sharing properties on your file sharing client. The RIAA tend to target people who are taking active roles in sharing the music via Peer to Peer (P2P) file sharing networks or via Torrents. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has provided a very good resource called “How not to get sued for file sharing.” You know, just in case you may be guilty of any infractions.

3. How can I find music that is legal to download?

There are certain places to find legal downloads of music. Most notably from pay sites such as iTunes and Rhapsody (Correction: Rhapsody is a free service but like the ones below you cannot access the songs outside of their site). There are alternatives to free downloads though. Here are three of my personal favorite sites for finding great free/legal music. These don’t allow you to download the music to your computer, but they provide great quality music and services.

A)Hype Machine: an mp3 blog site where users can upload music.

B)Pandora: a personalized internet radio website.

C)Myspace: however high school -ish Myspace may be, in reality it is a great tool for artists of all types to get the word out on their music.

4. Is using a peer to peer (such as Limewire or BitTorrent) network illegal?

Not at all. No matter how much their use slows down your PC, the programs aren’t illegal to use when sharing non-copyrighted material. What is illegal is exchanging copyrighted material over the networks. Copyrighted material is described by the U.S. Copyright Office as “‘original works of authorship’ that are fixed in a tangible form of expression.” So pretty much, if you don’t have permission from the artist to share it or if it isn’t in the public domain, it’s probably protected by a copyright.

5. Why is the RIAA suing people who download music, I’m just trying to enjoy it?

No matter how backwards their thinking may be, (the music industry suing music fans isn’t the best way to sell records) the artists have to make money somehow. File sharing has been blamed for the decrease in album sales since 2000. Put this way: who was the last artist to go platinum (sell a million records)? Nickelback, Carrie Underwood and Mariah Carey were the last three to do it back in 2005. It’s been two years since the last platinum record. Another perspective, no one has surpassed 12 million in sales since 1999.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill conducted a 2004 study in pdf format on how downloads have affected record sales. You can read their long version there or read this Washington Post article that give you the general gist of the study. I don’t think the RIAA was very happy to hear the results of the Harvard and UNC studies.

Have any other questions that I didn’t answer??? Send them in!

Until next time keep on keeping on and go out and visit your local record stores before they close. School Kids Records in Chapel Hill, NC has announced that it is closing after 30 years of business. The closing has been partially blamed on the rise in music downloading.

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