RIAA Heavy Handed?
By Jon Iverson August 23, 2004 — Even if you win, sometimes you lose—a lesson the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) might soon be learning if the results of a new poll are proven to reflect the long-term mainstream music buying mood.

Just last month, the RIAA, claiming to represent the interests of the major recording companies, filed copyright infringement suits against another 482 people in St. Louis, Denver, New Jersey, and Washington, DC, who allegedly downloaded music illegally from the Internet. Since last September, the recording industry has filed suit against more than 3400 people for damages of up to half a million dollars each. At least 600 of those cases have been settled for approximately $3000 each.

To date, none of the cases has gone to trial, and not every decision regarding file sharing is going the RIAA's way. But according to a recent Ipsos Public Affairs survey, 56% of American adults oppose the lawsuits while a mere 37% support the industry's legal actions (7% of those surveyed had no opinion).

"A majority of Americans say the music industry should not sue people who illegally download music off the Internet," say the researchers, who point out that, regardless of the lack of public support, legal experts say the industry's suits have legal merit.

Law Professor Sharon Sandeen notes, "Although the RIAA's lawsuits are unsettling to many, they are based upon sound law because it is a clear violation of copyright law to make a verbatim copy of a protected sound recording. The underlying public policy at work is the notion that without copyright laws, musical artists would be less inclined to create music and, as a result, there would be less sound recordings."

Sandeen suggests that the folks who complain about the lawsuits should ask themselves, "Would I rather live in a world with freely distributed but less music, or pay for the music I enjoy so that there will be more of it?" She adds, "Public opposition to the lawsuits may be due, in part, to what some people consider hard-handed tactics by the RIAA."

Not surprisingly, the researchers discovered that opposition to music industry lawsuits was much higher among younger people. Nearly two-thirds of those between the ages of 18 and 34 said the music industry should not sue people who illegally download music. Opposition to the lawsuits was also higher among people with lower incomes.