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Andrew WoodsEnglish 250 HEApril 28th, 2012Mediation: Music Piracy vs. music industry

Music IndustryPiracy harms economyProperty rights of artists violatedPro-PiracyIncreases fan supportDoes not harm economy but actually benefits it

The Conflict

Supporters of the music industry believe internet piracy is a large cause of decreased sales.The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) stated on their website: the annual harm at $12.5 billion dollars in losses to the U.S. economy as well as more than 70,000 lost jobs and $2 billion in lost wages to American workersthe direct result of internet piracy.Supporters also want stricter laws protecting artists and their labels along with harsher punishments towards piratesMusic Industry

Intellectual property is governed by copyright law.Section 106 of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 gives artists the right to publish or sell their property and also to give a third party (labels/producers) right to release their workViolation of the Copyright Act constitutes both a civil and criminal offense, with a minimum fine of $750 per song, as well as five years in prison and a $250,000 fineThose who commit copyright infringement are ignorant to the fact that they are violating copyright law due to the internets ability to instill anonymityThe Law

Those who support the piracy of music believe that it does not actually harm the profits of the music industryThey also believe that piracy actually helps bring new fans to music genres they would otherwise never know ofSupporters of piracy have shared ideals and goals and have created many successful group movements geared towards lessening the restrictions on internet piracyPro-Piracy

Pro-Piracy Movement

The group Anonymous was created in 2003 as a collective of like-minded individuals, spanning across the globeSince their beginning, the hacker group has become a very modern social activist group, taking extreme measures to promote privacy and freedom of choice/expression onlineAnonymous has been responsible for many website shutdowns and takeovers in the past decade:U.S Department of JusticeRIAAMotion Picture Association of AmericaUniversal MusicU.S. Copyright OfficeFBI.GOVFox News

Anonymous

With such heated sides in this conflict it was difficult to find a common ground that benefited both sides. One fact needs to be known: Online music piracy would be near impossible to stop without a complete re-work of the system***Therefore, my mediation may seem confusing, so bear with me Mediation

Creation of a special group of music licensures, such as the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC), whose purpose is to sell licenses to artists and their producersEach license gives the companies, such as the SESAC, the right to charge a fee for the frequent use of the artists workThe fee would need to be put somewhere, in order to make a profit. I propose including the fee as an additional charge for the use of internet in the U.S.SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN???Mediation

By adding this surcharge into the fee for the general use of the internet, the artists and their producers ensure that they gain a profit in one form or another for their workDepending on how often each song is played, companies such as the SESAC will collect each individual fee and reimburse the publisher and the songwriters each a 50% royalty (Masur 6).This method will set up a system that ensures that piracy is dealt with, as well as introduces a huge profit gain to the music industryEstimates have been proposed that this could create a pool as large as $20 billion annually to pay artists and copyright holders (Masur 5).Mediation

Greenberg, A.. "Anonymous hackers hit doj, fbi, universal music, mpaa and riaa after megaupload takedown." Forbes. Forbes, 2012. Web. 13 Apr 2012. .

Masur, Steven Collective Rights Licensing For Internet Downloads and Streams: Would It Properly Compensate Rights Holders?" Journal of Internet Law, 1 Nov. 2011: ABI/INFORM Global, ProQuest. Web. 25 Mar. 2012

Pallante, Maria A. United States. Copyright Office. Copyright Laws of the United States and Related Laws Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code. Washington D.C.: Library of Congress, 2011. http://www.copyright.gov/title17/circ92.pdf.

Siwek, Stephen. "The True Cost of Sound Recording Piracy to the U.S. Economy."IPI Center for Technology Freedom. IPI, 07 2007. Web. 28 Mar 2012. http://www.ipi.org/IPI%5CIPIPublications.nsf/PublicationLookupFullTextPDF/51CC65A1D4779E408625733E00529174/$File/SoundRecordingPiracy.pdf.

"The Law: Piracy." RIAA. Recording Industry Association of America, 2012. Web. 29 Mar 2012. http://www.riaa.com/physicalpiracy.php?content_selector=piracy_online_the_law.

Photos and clipart all come from Google image search***Works Cited