Andrew Woods English 250 HE April 28 th, 2012 MEDIATION: MUSIC PIRACY VS. MUSIC INDUSTRY

Music Industry  Piracy harms economy  Property rights of artists violated Pro-Piracy  Increases fan support  Does 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 workers…the direct result of internet piracy.”  Supporters also want stricter laws protecting artists and their labels along with harsher punishments towards pirates MUSIC 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 work  Violation 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 fine  Those who commit copyright infringement are ignorant to the fact that they are violating copyright law due to the internet’s ability to instill anonymity THE LAW

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

PRO-PIRACY MOVEMENT

 The group “Anonymous” was created in 2003 as a collective of like-minded individuals, spanning across the globe  Since their beginning, the hacker group has become a very modern social activist group, taking extreme measures to promote privacy and freedom of choice/expression online  Anonymous has been responsible for many website shutdowns and takeovers in the past decade:  U.S Department of Justice  RIAA  Motion Picture Association of America  Universal Music  U.S. Copyright Office  FBI.GOV  Fox 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 producers  Each license gives the companies, such as the SESAC, the right to charge a fee for the frequent use of the artist’s work  The 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 work “Depending 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 industry  Estimates 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, Web. 13 Apr 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 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, Siwek, Stephen. "The True Cost of Sound Recording Piracy to the U.S. Economy."IPI Center for Technology Freedom. IPI, Web. 28 Mar CC65A1D4779E E /$File/SoundRecordingPiracy.pdf. "The Law: Piracy." RIAA. Recording Industry Association of America, Web. 29 Mar Photos and clipart all come from Google image search*** WORKS CITED