Music downloading suits could drive backlash against embattl

[BADMIHAI]

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The legal assault on music file-swappers is an unparalleled move by U.S. recording companies trying to survive after failing to fully embrace digital distribution methods and driving up the cost of CDs.

But some observers say record companies now risk a backlash that could damage far more than their financial results, while still not making a significant dent in music piracy. A day after firing off 261 copyright lawsuits against individuals it accuses of each sharing hundreds of music files online, recording industry officials fielded a few calls from defendants eager to avoid paying thousands in damages.

The Recording Industry Association of America said it settled the first of the suits for $2,000 US. The defendant was Sylvia Torres, the mother of 12-year-old Brianna Lahara of New York, who was accused of downloading more than 1,000 songs from Kazaa.

The effort by some to make it all go away may bode well for the industry, but some observers and lawmakers began to question the tactic.

Accounts emerged that some of those caught in the industry's piracy net were young children and seniors - hardly the perfect poster image of a hard-core music pirate. That led some to question whether the industry might be making its problem even worse.

During a Senate judiciary hearing Tuesday, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois suggested the industry may be going too far while questioning Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America.

"Are you headed to junior high schools to round up the usual suspects?" Durbin asked.

Sherman told Durbin the industry is merely trying to get the message across that sharing music is illegal and that people may be caught.

"Yes, there are going to be some kids caught in this, but you'd be surprised at how many adults are engaged in this activity," Sherman said.

The accounts of those sued bolstered the view that music fans of every ilk have taken to downloading music directly to their computers as a preferred method of getting their music.

"The real hope here is that people will return to the record store," said Eric Garland, CEO of BigCampagne LLC, which tracks peer-to-peer Internet trends. "The biggest question is whether singling out a handful of copyright infringers will invigorate business or drive file-sharing further underground, further out of reach."

There are signs some people have stopped file-sharing since June, when the RIAA announced its lawsuit campaign, and also have moved to other file-swapping networks perceived to be safer than the market leader, Kazaa.

Traffic on the FastTrack network, the conduit for Kazaa and Grokster users, declined over the summer and climbed again last month, as has the number of people using less popular file-sharing software like eDonkey, Garland said.

"The overall trend is that Kazaa is down, although in the most recent month, it's actually rebounding and a number of the other services are gaining usage," he said.

"As people do flee Kazaa ... they're going to migrate into communities you can't quantify."

Just because a person stops file-sharing does not mean they will start buying CDs and generating revenue for the industry, said Josh Bernoff, an analyst with Forrester Research, Inc.

"Many of these individuals have gotten out of the habit of buying CDs," Bernoff said. "They think CDs are too expensive, they only want a couple of tracks on the CD."

The recording industry has been battling a three-year slump in CD sales that it blames squarely on the explosion of music file-sharing that first started when Napster surfaced in the late 1990s.

Record companies were successful in suing Napster out of business in 2001, but have not had similar victories against more elusive and prolific successors, including Kazaa, Morpheus and Grokster.

While the industry has begun to warm up to paid music download services, such as Apple Computer Inc.'s ITunes Music Store and Buy.com's BuyMusic.com., no service has emerged as a clear alternative to the file-sharing services' selection.

Bernoff said consumers already think so little of the music companies that the lawsuits likely won't make much of a difference.

"The industry has been backed into a corner and their image is so bad, the lawsuits are not going to be much of a problem," he said.

ALEX VEIGA


© The Canadian Press, 2003

[Nemisis8u]

Here we go again. Are they too dumb to realize that they cant win. There are so many of these programs out there. By suing they will just get people pissed off. Im sure the 261 people they sued will buy more CD from now on.

[TT]

The funny thing is that they started out with a 12 years old girlll :-/

[Johns]

is there anythin new out there that is like Kazaa??

[TT]

There are lot of other file sharing application, but the more ppl will disperse all over the others, the more will be hard to have a big community.. IMO we have to stick to the usual ones Kazaa, WinMX, Direct Connect and so on... (ok, for us non US ppl will be easier at least at the beginning to "escape"...). But I'm curious to see how things will evolve...

BTW, since they said you can risk up to 150'000 USD of fines... let's say there are 50'000'000 of p2p users around the globe... (and they are more than that).. if all goes well for RIIA, they will get 7500 billions dollars LMAO! No need to create new songs for the next 2000 years

[oic0]

*gets an FM tuner and sets computer to constantly record, then manually sort and burn to cds for easy listening*

[666fast]

I thin it's all stupid, they blame piracy on a 30% decrease in CD sales. of course it wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that 90% of the music out is crap.
I also don't see the point in sueing people. Yay, they win $2000. Do they think that $200 is gonna recover thier millions of dollars they have lost?

Instead of shutting it down, they need to embrace it. Their Draconian methods of distributing music is over. In this day and age, the technology exists for them to make just as much or even more money than they used too. All they need to do is set up a system where people pay a certain amount for each track. Or even a subscription based system. Sorry, I will not pay $17 for the two of the eleven songs I like on a CD.

The RIAA and record labels are losing money becuase they are pumping money into what used to sell instead of new, innovative bands. Just because it sold yesterday does not mean it'll sell today.

[possessed_beaver]

omg never underestamte the power of a few million teenagers with computers, acne, and no date to the prom!!
the RIAA doesent stand a chance, and has just made it worse for themselfs.. well done guys!

[Homans]

Subscriptions dont even need to happen. It costs NOTHING to make CDs...so if they made the price of each CD like 10 bucks....i would almost guarantee a HUGE increase in sales. I wouldnt feel like i was getting violated every time i bought one. I know that caters alot to the consumer, but honestly, with so many more buyers, I cant imagine how the companies dont stand to make HUGE amounts of money.

[hemi_fan]

just read the lawsuit one... killer

[GT-R_R34]

the latest one for p2p is es5 www.es5.com earthstation5. mmm i still use winmx and emule

[possessed_beaver]

Originally Posted by GT-R_R34 the latest one for p2p is es5 www.es5.com earthstation5. mmm i still use winmx and emule

mmm.. intresting, i will download and try it, i hope it's better than kazaa