RIAA Shoots Looters, Self
In late July, the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) delivered a flurry of subpoenas against individuals it
accuses of downloading copyrighted music from the Internet. This is alarming.
I don't find it alarming because I have ever
illegally downloaded a music file or because I think that people have a right to stiff
artists for their work. Limited as it has been, I do have a small degree of experience in
producing music recordings, and my lack of participation in any profits derived from them
has a lot more to do with the absence of any such profits than with a sense of
altruism on my part. Personally, I think the people who create the music ought to be able
to profit from it.
My objection to the RIAA's tactic is twofold. First, I
think it is misdirected. Horribly misdirected. I'd even go so far as to say willfully misdirected.
The RIAA characterizes this as an antipiracy measure, which makes it seem as though
it's attacking a bunch of money-grubbing thugs.
Here's how the trade group describes its actions:
"Based on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) expedited subpoena
provision, the RIAA sends out information subpoenas as part of an effort to track and shut
down repeat offenders and to deter those hiding behind the perceived anonymity of the
Internet. Information subpoenas require the Internet Service Provider (ISP) providing
access to or hosting a particular site to provide contact information for the site
operator."
Makes it all seem so logical, don't it?
So who received those 900 subpoenas? The RIAA did
issue subpoenas against Internet service providers and university administrators -- but
those were targeted so the association could harvest the identities of individual users
based upon information the RIAA gathered by scanning song lists offered by users of
popular file-sharing programs such as Kazaa, Grokster, and LimeWire.
Pirates? No, the end target is really a bunch of
students, secretaries, and office workers for the most part. Pirates do exist, of
course, and there's no question they cause the record industry to lose millions of dollars
each year, but they ain't doing it song by song on PC clones in their dorm rooms. No,
they're doing it in sweatshops in countries that -- oh, how shall I put this delicately?
-- aren't concerned with niceties like copyrights.
When you get right down to it, neither do many of those
students, secretaries, and office workers, but a large number of them simply don't know
any better. According to the RIAA, they do know, but I suspect the association
isn't really going after them because it wants to teach them about morality. I reckon it's
because they're easy targets.
But even that is not what is bothering me -- at least it's
not the biggest thing that sticks in my craw. No, it's that little phrase "hiding
behind the perceived anonymity of the Internet" that I find so worrying. The legality
of the whole proceeding is predicated on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which, to
my way of thinking, grants alarmingly broad powers to anyone who makes a claim that
someone on the Internet is violating their copyright. What's that you say? Issuing a
subpoena is a complicated process and requires that you convince a judge that it is
justified?
Not in DMCA cases. They don't need a judge's
signature, just a clerk's rubber stamp. You think the RIAA proved its case against
those 900 users, do you? No, it probably just used that big ol' judicial shotgun to shake
the trees all those folks were perched in. That's called intimidation -- and it certainly
got people's attention.
Fortunately, it also got Congress' attention. Senator Norm
Coleman (R-MN), chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, initiated
an inquiry into the trade group's warning salvo. Coleman acknowledges that the RIAA has
"every right to develop practical remedies for protecting its rights," but was
concerned that the group's approach had targeted relatives and roommates whose computers
were unwittingly used to share files. Coleman characterized the RIAA's response as
"excessive," adding, "In this country we don't cut off your arm or fingers
for stealing."
I'm afraid we'll soon see if he's right.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
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