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The RIAA has been at the heart of the peer-to-peer MP3 file-sharing controversy. Its attempts to defend the interests of its members have been viewed by some as detrimental to the interests of both consumers and artists, and benefiting only the larger record labels which comprise the RIAA. Opponents of the RIAA claim that the trade group is in effect a cartel which artificially inflates and fixes prices for CDs. Such allegations note that the Big Four ( EMI, Sony-BMG, Universal MusicUniversal Music is the largest major label in the record industry, with a 23% market share. It was originally the record label of Universal Studios. The present organisation was formed when its owners, Seagram, bought PolyGram and merged it. Seagram has s, and Warner) distribute at least 95 percent of all music CDs sold worldwide.
Hilary RosenHilary B. Rosen was the chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America from 1998 to 2003. Under Rosen, the RIAA advanced a legal and PR campaign to limit the swapping of copyrighted music, a practice whose popularity increased dramatical, the RIAA's president and chief executive officer from 19881988 is a leap year starting on Friday (click on link for calendar). Events January January 2 Georgia celebrates its bicentennial statehood. January 9 Connecticut celebrates its bicentennial statehood. January 26 Australia celebrates its bicentennial day. to 20032003 is a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar), and also: The International Year of Freshwater The European Disability Year Summary Perhaps the defining global event of the year 2003 was the Invasion of Iraq launched by the U, was an outspoken critic of peer to peer file sharing, and under her direction, the RIAA has waged an aggressive legal campaign to halt the practice.The digitisation of music and the availability of inexpensive digital communications and file-swapping technologies are disruptive technologiesThe definition The term disruptive technology was coined by Clayton M. Christensen to describe a new, lower performance, but less expensive product. The disruptive technology starts by gaining a foothold in the low-end (and less demanding part) of the mar and have led, arguably, to a crisis of confidence for the recording industry. Some people believe that these technologies may remove the need for physical distribution of recorded music altogether, threatening the existence of many of the large conglomerates that currently dominate the marketing and distribution of music. The RIAA contends that unregulated file-swapping is "piracy".
The RIAA adduces as evidence statistics such as "Surveys in all major markets prove [file-sharing] is a major factor in the fall in world music sales, down 7% in 2003, and down 14% in three years." (Cary Sherman, RIAA president). The RIAA's claim conflicts with figures provided by Soundscan, the NielsenWhen ( US) TV viewers or entertainment writers refer to "ratings," they are talking about Nielsen Ratings a system developed by the New York City based Nielsen Media Research, Inc. firm to determine which shows television viewers watch at what times. company responsible for compiling the Billboard music charts, which suggest that US sales rose by 10% from 147 million in the 1st quarter of 2003 to 160 million in the 1st quarter of 2004. The difference is that the RIAA uses statistics on shipments to record shops; Soundscan measures sales to end users. By way of oversimplified analogy, the following situation is being claimed as a drop in sales: 1,000 CDs were shipped last year to shops, and 700 sold. This year only 930 CDs were shipped to shops but 770 were sold.
The RIAA has sought to protect its members' interests by political lobbying for changes in copyright and criminal law, and by litigation under existing laws. As a result, the RIAA's members now have special laws enacted in the United States to protect and reinforce their business models. These include the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. These laws are helping them to sue many large peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks, however to date there has not been a successful US lawsuit against one of the major 'decentralised' file-sharing networks.
The RIAA's extreme unpopularity with certain segments of the Internet community has made its website a popular target for malicious hackers, and it has been repeatedly broken into and defaced. Indeed one virus variant was designed for the sole purpose of instituting a distributed denial-of-service attack on the RIAA's web server.
Many people believe that the RIAA has done little to garner positive goodwill from consumers- such as the now-infamous lawsuit against 12-year-old Brianna LaHara. Some believe that their primary goal is to retain the status quo and prevent lowered recording and distribution costs from reaching consumers. To these observers, they appear to spend a considerable amount of money lobbying lawmakers to enact legislation that erodes fair use rights and turns the tables on the "copyright bargain," the social contract that allows artists the right to prevent copying of their works—a right that some think of as contrary to natural law—in exchange for the promotion of science and the useful arts.)
Recently, several industry companies as well as RIAA opponents have claimed that the group artificially expands its membership by listing companies which are not member of RIAA, and do not wish to be. Boycott-RIAA.com founder Bill Evans noted that the RIAA's website began listing both Matador Records and Lookout Records on its website as members.[1] However, neither company is actually a member. While Evans may seem to many as a biased, unreliable source, both companies confirmed his story.
Matador Records' Patrick Armory stated that the company is not an RIAA member and does not wish to be. He said this was not the first time they had been listed erroneously on the site. In order to remedy the situation, he said, "I've now sent them three, count them, emails demanding that we be removed! But to no avail." Armory contacted Amy Weiss of the RIAA, a former deputy press secretary to Bill Clinton, but received no response. The listing was then removed two days later, however. At that time, Bill Evans claims Lookout Records contacted him to say that their name had just been added to the list.
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