S. consumers an extra $480 million over the past three years, while the average CD price has risen 41% over the past five years.".
Article II. The RIAA has Defrauded Artists of Even the Possibility of Recovering Copyrights to Their Own Music and has Continually Taken a Disproportionate Amount of CD Profits.
Using their control of the industry the labels represented by the RIAA have been able to force unfair contracts onto artists.
According to the Independent Artists petition against the RIAA and Clear Channel, a good contract could mean approximately .5% of an album that net's 1,000,000. Many artists now are even forced to fund their own albums, tours, and videos while an egregious amount of the profit still goes to the record companies. .
Through lobbying in congress, the RIAA has over the last several decades continually taken copyrights and even the possibility of ever recovering copyrights to their own music away from artists. Wired writes, "Last year, the RIAA lobbied to insert into unrelated legislation a clause preventing copyrights from reverting to their authors. By adding four words -- "as a sound recording.".
Originally, copyrights on music lasted seven years with the possibility of a seven-year extension. Today, copyrights on music last seventy-five years plus the authors life. Record labels are not the authors but they do own the copyrights, so in essence, they will be profiting from Nick Drake's music seventy-five years after he died.
"Copyrights were designed to ensure that after a short time, art and science would become public so that everyone could benefit from them -- but they have been hijacked," writes www.evilsite.org.
Article III. The RIAA has Impeached Anti-trust Laws in its Methodology for Isolating Independent Artists and Labels.
Independent Artists and Labels have come to represent an antithesis to the practices of the RIAA. This has made them a prime target for the RIAA.
