In early September, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is planning to break every known rule of corporate public relations, writes Mike France in Business Week, by suing hundreds of high school valedictorians, pilots, firefighters, entrepreneurs, and other seemingly upstanding citizens for stealing songs online. As RIAA president Cary Sherman says, "Downloaded music or file-swapping is a persuasive problem that is causing great harm to everyone who brings music to the public," it has affected the sales at stores, such as Sam Goody and Music World. From a personal perspective, I have not bought a CD at a store for a couple of years because of the fact that downloading is cheaper and much easier. I guess in a way I am part of the problem for music companies. .
The RIAA is focusing on the "most egregious" file-swappers. It is trying to shut down the main file-sharing services such as Kazaa, Morpheus, and Grokster, but have failed to do so. They are in the process of subpoenaing nearly 1,000 people for illegally swapping files, which is an infringement on Copyright laws. The targets will receive a copy of the lawsuit against them, a letter explaining the charges, and a number they can call if they want to talk about a settlement. Copyright law is clearly aggressive or maybe excessive to people who swap music files over the internet. The penalties are, as France describes, "medievally harsh" because the fine can be up to $150,000 per song. .
According to a New Product Development (NPD) survey, that means the average college sophomore with ten weeks of music on his hard drive, theoretically means more than $1 billion in liability, which is not dischargeable in bankruptcy court. I agree with France in that the fine seems to be a little extreme. In the Steven Speilberg version of this conflict, the plucky rebels with the long hair and grandiose rhetoric would ultimately win the war, as said by Mike France in Business World.