The Recording Industry Association of Americas (RIAA) - Essay Example

One of the current battles that continue to rage not only within the industry but also within society is with regard to whether or not copyrights should be enforced and if so to what extent. As a means of informing such an understanding and analysis of this topic, this author visited the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) website as well as Piratbyran (a Swedish think tank that is committed to the idea of free information). Likewise, as a means of comparing and contrasting these two differential viewpoints, it is the hope of this author that the reader will be able to clean a greater level of understanding and knowledge with regard to whether or not the implications in positions that these respective groups cherish would benefit the public as a whole or not.

Firstly, with regards to the RIAA, it comes as this prize that this group fundamentally rejects any form of copyright infringement and/or work piracy. The most obvious reason and rationale behind this are with regards to the fact that the RIAA represents a massive number of entities that derive their profitability from the fact that individuals legally acquire the products and services that they offer. However, instead of directly discussing the level of financial harm that this does to the RIAA and its bottom line, the website promotes an understanding of the fact that the individual who engages in copyright infringement and/or work piracy is directly hurting the individual artist at the very lowest levels of their organization. This commons as somewhat of a surprise due to the fact that the major record companies generally cell a new CD for approximately $15-$16. Of this $15-$16, the individual artist is only receiving approximately $1.60 per record sold. As can be seen, this 10% is negligible in terms of damages effected upon the artist himself/herself. This is of course not to say that copyright infringement work high receipt has little to no effect upon the artist; however, it does help to underscore a level of understanding with regards to why the RIAA is so flagrantly and aggressively advocating the loss of profits that such a process entails.

Comparatively, groups such as Piratbyran seek to promote a world in which a free flow of information is both possible and realized. Within groups such as Piraybyran, individuals believe that an alternative method of economics can readily exist that would help to connect the potential user directly to the artist thereby maximizing profitability for the one who should be most rewarded and gutting the middleman out of the process entirely. Moreover, the rationale and logic of the particular position that such a group supports is with respect to an understanding that in and of itself represents a situation in which a good taken ceases to exist within the possession of the original holder. However, with regards to software piracy and copyright infringement, merely a copy is passed on to another individual with the primary good still being within the control of the original holder; thereby signifying that no such that has taken place top

Although both of these viewpoints represent reasonable approaches to the issue of copyright infringement in the way in which the world will continue to develop, it is the belief of this author that a middle ground necessarily exists. Seizing upon this middle ground, firms such as Apple and a litany of others have begun offering services such as iTunes which allow individual consumers to directly download content to their personal devices without being charged exorbitant fees they might be charged within a traditional brick-and-mortar store. In such a way, not only is the individual able to have access to electronic content with a mere click of the mouse, but the artist is also able to derive a higher degree of profitability from their output as compared to traditional record releases that it defined so much of the past several decades. Finally, it must be understood that the moral high ground that the RIAA is seeking to take is something much less noble than it claims to be. Ultimately, this is only a collection of extraordinarily powerful and oligarchic companies that are seeking to ensure that their profitability is maintained by leveraging an emotion-filled plea with regard to the ethics and levels of conscience that potential consumers might exhibit. Similarly, a world in which no copyright laws existed and pirates were free to run amok would necessarily represent a world in which little to no incentive with exists to create original music, software, movies, or ideas. In such a way, it is the firm belief of this author that a definitive middle ground must be found between these two points of view.