So the new Miley Cyrus album is out (yea, that wig and trench coat isn't fooling anyone, we know it was you at the Hannah Montana concert). You can barely sit still as you joyfully count the seconds away to torrent download completion and pure unadulterated teen pop magic. A few days later, you get an innocuous email along the lines of:
" Busted!!!!.... Sucker! Give us $3,000 now or we'll screw you for all you're worth!"
No, this is not spam. As of February, 2007 the RIAA began sending letters accusing internet users of sharing files. The letters go on to say that anyone not settling will have lawsuits brought against them. Typical settlements are between $3,000 and $12,000.
HOLY CRAP!... 'The Man' exists... and he has an army of lawyers!
Of course, there have been instances where these cases have been brought to court. Most of the time they're dismissed due to lack of evidence, but in the few cases they win... well it ain't pretty. In the case RIAA vs Joel Tenenbaum, the jury awarded $22,500 per song resulting in a judgment of $675,000 for the shared 30 tracks and in the case RIAA vs Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the jury awarded $80,000 per song, or $1.92 million for 24 tracks.
Even if you've never discovered the internet and never shared your music files, the RIAA will find a way to screw you over. In 2008, they filed a federal lawsuit against Jeffrey Howell in Arizona,for creating "unauthorized copies" of CD tracks by ripping them to his computer - even though he may never have shared them with anyone else!
The 'logic' behind this is by ripping the songs in YOUR CD into a computer - you are transferring it into an unauthorized medium not of the artist's choosing. Everyone agrees this makes perfect sense.
The RIAA also claims that you're committing a felony just by making these files available. This is the logical equivalent of saying that by selling tickets to the Louvre, you are stealing the Mona Lisa.
If you're getting confused at all the myriad implications of these claims, Cracked has compiled a little list on all the things the RIAA considers illegal:
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Cracked Talk on | RIAA
When the RIAA tell me "you're destoying music industry jobs by pirating music" all I have to say in response is "maybe if less money was going to the artist and more was going to the people who work their asses off to promote the albums, manage make the CD's, etc, instead of going towards the "artist's" luxury car collection, I'd care."
As it is, indie artists get my money. That's it.
I was always under the impression that the money for music sales went mostly to the record label, and artists make their money from shows and such. After all, someone has got to be making loads off all these pop music superstars. Why else would the music labels sue people for $80k per track? Because they are the ones losing money. $20 whole entire dollars lost on 24 tracks of music. This whole situation is the equivalent of a public execution; make an example so everyone they couldn't catch will stop. Do they really think people work that way? I bet things will only get worse (for them) as they "crack down" on people like this.
That's right, the record labels make more than anyone off of album sales. There are plenty of stories about bands falling apart or simply getting screwed by their labels because of unfair or harsh terms and practices. So it's pretty fucking disingenuous when RIAA representatives put on their innocent faces before going on TV, acting like Joe College Student is the villain in the picture.
None of this changes the fact that sharing copyrighted material is pretty much illegal, but even so the RIAA can't keep on doing what they're doing and not expect some serious backlash for it.
$1.92 miiiiiillllion dollars for 24 tracks?! If you physically stole a CD with 24 tracks on it worth about $12 you'd probably just get a couple of hundred dollars of a fine. How the hell can they justify this? It's not like she sold 160,000 copies of those tracks on CD for fuck's sake. Oh I am angry...
I totally agree. These are the people that sued the freaking Girl Scouts for using "The Macarena" at camp without paying for permission. Probably to spawn a healthy amount of hatred for the RIAA before these girls became teenagers.