Beyond The Net
Music industry plans hundreds of lawsuits for music sharing
By Janine Warner
Emboldened by the recent growth of fee-based music services, such as iTunes and Listen.com, the Recording Industry Association of America has announced plans to file hundreds of lawsuits in the coming months against individuals who trade music through free file-sharing systems, such as Kazaa.
Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store, launched earlier this year, quickly became a darling of the music industry when it reported more than five million songs were downloaded in its first eight weeks online. iTunes has deals with all five major record labels and charges 99 cents per song.
RIAA hopes that selling songs online will become a viable alternative to file sharing, which it blames for a 25 percent drop in sales of CDs since 1999.
Many argue the association is exaggerating losses, but no matter what they say the RIAA is not going to reverse the trend with more lawsuits.
Fred von Lohmann, staff attorney with Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group based in San Francisco, criticized the RIAA for ``using the threat of litigation as a marketing tactic.''
Lohmann noted that in the United States alone an estimated 60 million people use file-sharing networks, such as Kazaa. In contrast, Emusic reports only 70,000 subscribers and Listen.com claims ``tens of thousands.''
''If their services were attractive on their own, they wouldn't need this threat to get people to migrate [to fee-based services],'' Lohmann said.
''I don't think anybody likes to be in lawsuits, but we've tried in thousands of ways to deal with the problem,'' Zach Horowitz, president of Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group told the Los Angeles Times. ``I just think that there's not a lot of other alternatives for us now.''
Lohmann said the Foundation believes there are alternatives, which is why it launched a campaign to lobby Congress to change the way laws are applied to file sharing.
''It's clear that copyright law needs to be updated to make file sharing legal and get artists paid,'' he said. ``Suing all these people is not going to put a penny of royalties in the pocket of any artist.''
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is exploring a variety of ways to collect fees from users, including adding surcharges to Internet access fees, which could be shared among copyright holders.
That's similar to the model at Listen.com, which charges a monthly subscription fee to listen to any of its music online. To burn songs to a CD, the service charges 79 cents per song.
I have to say up front that I recently subscribed to Listen.com and I enjoy the simplicity of being able to search for a song and play it with the click of a button. I also like knowing there is no question I'm legally using copyrighted material (after all, I make my own living thanks to copyright law).
But Listen.com only offers about 350,000 songs. In contrast, users of Kazaa have given each other access to some 800 million songs, movies, and other files -- arguably the largest collection of digital content ever.
Lohmann and others argue that under current copyright laws, fee-based services will always have a limited selection because they have to clear the rights to every song, a complex task that so far has proven impossible for some of the most popular music.
For example, you'll never find a Beatles' song on a fee-based site, but you'll find even the most obscure live recordings of the Beatles if you search through Kazaa.
Matt Graves of Listen.com said his company doesn't need the rights to every song to be successful. ''Our goal is to build a sustainable business,'' he said. ``That does not require millions of people, although we hope we'll grow.''
So what makes people pay for music when they can find it for free on online?
''Surprisingly the morality argument comes up quite a bit,'' said Graves, whose company has done considerable market research. ``People want to know they are getting music the right way and the artists are getting paid.''
Lohmann said the Electronic Frontier Foundation's research also suggests consumers would pay for file sharing, if the selection were broad and reasonably priced. But changing laws can take years and, in the meantime, hundreds, and even thousands, of people may face lawsuits for sharing files.
Last month, four college students settled claims out of court to the tune of $12,000 to $17,000 each, after they were charged with running illegal file-sharing networks.
''Most people who get sued are probably going to settle,'' Lohmann said, ``because they're not going to have a choice. Hiring a lawyer for a case like this can easily cost six figures.''
If you want to avoid becoming another test case in the world of online music sharing, EFF recommends you stop making files available for download from your hard drive because the Recording Industry Association of America said it is targeting people who make large amounts of music available.
And before you start worrying that the threat of a lawsuit will force everyone to take down the music they share online, consider that an estimated 200 million people around the world use file sharing systems today.
''Even if all Americans stopped sharing, you'd still have more than 100 million users overseas,'' Lohmann said, ``and it seems unlikely that they are going to be intimidated by the threat of a lawsuit in the U.S.''
First publication, The Miami Herald, July 07, 2003
