Internet Piracy Harms Artists By Phil Gardson

Is important for anyone who has created any intellectual property to protect it. In the music industry, in order for someone to protect their work, they must obtain a copyright. Music has been around before anyone could obtain a copyright and when the invention of the computer came along it made it easier for someone to steal another artist's intellectual property with the help of the internet. This paper will cover what events have taken a big role in copyright protection for artist, the consequences if someone was to break the rules of a copyright which is called copyright infringement, and how will a copyright hold in the future. Were copyrights enacted without the thought of life changing technology, and how can some music companies

One aspect of copyright law which has gained much interest recently is music copyright infringement. There are many ways in which copyright infringement in the music industry can occur, but plagiarism is one of the most newsworthy copyright infringements in the music industry. Plagiarism in its most basic form is stealing and misrepresenting someone else’s ideas or words as one’s property and not giving the true owner credit. However, proving plagiarism in the music industry has its own unique challenges, and from these challenges come an important ethical issue. In Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, the U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress: “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” The original purpose of copyright law is not just to protect works from theft, but also to promote innovation and creativity. However, as shown in recent cases such as Williams v. Bridgeport Music et al. and Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin, the legal system has shown its handling music plagiarism cases. By examining the standard procedure and case examples for music copyright infringement, two things become evident: The current laws adequately protect artists’ works, but in some instances, creativity is stunted by judicial system’s way of dealing with infringement. Thus, the judicial system has certain issues in heeding to the original purpose of copyright law.

In February of 2001, the once small college based program now had over 30 million users downloading and sharing music. Even after being shut down in 2003, file sharing still lives on. In a survey done by Digital Media, about 70% of people with the internet have once downloaded music illegally. But is it really hurting the industry as much as people say it is? The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America, an organization that deals with music sales) sure thinks so. They say that the recording industry loses 300 plus million to pirated music each year and that it is “a very real threat to the livelihoods of not only artists and record label employees but also thousands of less celebrated people in the music industry.” They believe it has caused so much devastation in the industry that they have no choice but to prosecute file sharers and bring them to court. Harvard University and the University of North Carolina beg to differ, they say that for every 5,000 downloads, one physical CD is lost and though it does hurt the industry, they consider illegal downloading a “small contribution to the overall slide in album sales” and also states that with the percent of music lost to pirated downloads, the percent of legal downloads has grown – which shows a possible positive effect to illegal downloading.

In a past decade, the music industry is facing a major problem, which is reflecting in diminishing revenues of artists and music companies. As described by Danny Upshaw and Laurie Babin in their research, in 2009 International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) estimated that 95% of songs downloaded online were unlawful act (14).

Producers of musical content cannot undo the adverse effects that piracy has had on the industry. Because of the internet and the way individuals have manipulated it to obtain music, many people are unwilling to change their habits. Here lies the issue between the producer and the consumer. Acts like the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) work against the incentive of many consumers by telling them that they cannot do what maximizes their utility. Producers are thus working against the likings of the consumer. This is wrong.

This paper examines the role of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in protecting the intellectual copyright of recordings from illegal downloading, which continues to be a major problem for the recording industry despite repeated efforts to stop this practice by consumers. This role of the RIAA relates to the business and economic aspects of the recording industry and illegal downloads from online platforms. The RIAA’s role in addressing illegal downloading has involved lobbying governments for enforcement of copyrights, litigation against private parties (individuals and organizations), engaged in illegal downloads, and marketing campaigns encouraging customers to refrain from engaging in illegal downloads. The paper begins with a background on how the technological developments led to the problem of illegal downloads before examining the role of the RIAA in curbing this practice. The analysis then concludes with the finding that the RIAA has been deficient in curbing this practice, resulting in significant losses in sales, revenues, and profits for the recording industry.

Introduction: Setting the trend for the future, the distribution and consumption of recorded music transformed dramatically with the launching of Apple’s iTunes in 2001. The proliferation of online music subscription services and other music sharing services exerted a great pressure on the conventional music distribution business model. Combined with this transformation, piracy of digital music had a profound impact on the whole industry. These worsening conditions in the market place for recorded music forced both established and upcoming new artists to experiment with new ways of selling their music.

Recently, there has been a series of copyright infringement litigations against Internet businesses that are involved with unauthorized distribution of music files. The US recording industry claims to lose three million dollars per year because of piracy. A report predicted an estimated 16 percent of all US music sales, or 985 million dollars would be lost due to online piracy by 2002 (Foege, 2000; cited from McCourt & Burkart, 2003) Even though this claim has to be taken with caution, as it is based on false assumption that if copyright laws were strictly enforced, audio pirates would become buyers, it is apparent that audio piracy grew to a worrisome level for the record industry. (Gayer

Music is part of parcel in the everyday lives of people. Many believe that when words are not enough to convey what one feels, music can. Music has varying genres but all have the same goal—that is to encapsulate emotions through the lyrics of the song. When one is happy, the one listening to it will be happy. If the song is sad, it can bring nostalgia to its listener. Further, music has been regarded as an art, because singers and song writers have their diverse ways on how to write it. As an art, it includes skill and talent to make it more appealing to the market. However, writing a song and signing it does not end there. Since these songs are considered to be a property of those who were able to write and sing such, it must be protected. That is why there are copyright laws which seek to protect songs of various artists all over the world. This paper will discuss how copyright gives the protection the artists need and why it is still necessary.

The internet is seeing a new model against piracy forcing some artists to opt out of electronic sales. The government laws have made music very freely available but most artists are suggesting the government will go over these laws again to bring music back to the level of importance that it is.

The internet is one of the greatest and most significant inventions of the 20th century. It has become the biggest data foundation to receive all kinds of information, particularly knowledge related to education and improving one’s skills. Downloads are needed in order to receive data from computer networks which are remote systems, typically a server. Copyrighted content needs to have appropriate permission to download it and without this permission doing so could constitute copyright infringement. According to Towers (2011), on-line piracy generally refers to sharing over the internet copies of works that are not authorised or illegal downloading of software, movies, videogames and music. Copyrighted works are distributed illicitly through Internet chat rooms, newsgroups and peer-to-peer file trading networks. All of these kinds of internet copyright infringement are crimes that should be punished by law. This essay will discuss illegal online music downloading, the consequences for the music industry and artists, and will introduce two solutions in terms of the law in relation to this issue. Finally, an evaluation of these solutions will be given.

Copyright laws in regards to music should be repealed. The RIAA has misconstrued the perceived effects staring had on artist development and revenue, when in fact the perceived financial short-comings of downloading and peer-to-peer sharing are actually made up through concert-revenue and merchandise-revenue.

The purpose of the copyright system has always been to promote creativity in society and protect the creator’s interests. In applying copyright laws to any creation, three basic guidelines apply. First is the fair return for a creator’s labor, second is “Fair Use” of the creator’s labor and finally the Progress of Science and useful Arts to further the public good. The application of these three guidelines in litigation for A&M Records, Inc. vs. Napster, found that the rights of reproduction, and distribution had been violated, in effect upholding the copyrights’ of nineteen different music companies represented under A&M Records name, this ruling had protected the music industries interests. However it would seem that the publishing industry would not be so lucky, litigation in Authors’ Guild vs. Google ruled that Google’s actions constituted fair use. Under these two scenarios’ the copyright laws’ have, effectively, protected the rights of music artists’, protected the public’s right to “fair use” and sparked new opportunities for creative growth. However, lawmakers continue to struggle to define copyright boundaries between the public’s right of use and the creator’s right to profit from their efforts.

Now lets take a look at the legal issues involved with file sharing. In the recording industry, there are two copyright laws involved. The first one is the copyright of the musical composition, which deals with the lyrics and musical notes. This is usually owned by the songwriter or music publisher.4 The second law is the copyright in sound recording, which deals with the recording of the performer singing or playing a given song. This is usually owned by the record company.5 The law that is violated with electronic file sharing is the second one. Titles 17 and 18 of the U.S. Code protect copyright owners from the unauthorized reproduction, adaptation or distribution of sound recordings, as well as certain digital performances to the public.6 So, from the legal clauses, it can be interpreted that users of popular online sites such as Napster are engaging in unauthorized distribution of sound recordings. The online infringement of copyrighted music can be punished with several years in prison. 7

The music and movie piracy has been one of the major issues, which the world has been facing and challenging for years. Illegal music and movie downloading became more prevalent as technology improved. According to the statistics by Ipsos, “30% of the UK population is active in some form of piracy, either through streaming content online or buying counterfeit DVDs” (Lodderhose, 2014). Some people argue that music and movie piracy could be considered as same as theft which could have significant impacts on music and movie industries while others do not concern about it. This essay will examine the reasons behind the prevalence of online piracy and will discuss the positive and negative impacts of online piracy.