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Downloaders Face the Music

By Kathryn R. Satterfield

Listen up, music lovers! on September 8, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed lawsuits against 261 people. The message: Swapping songs free of charge over the Internet is illegal.

The RIAA represents U.S. record companies. They say that the music industry is losing money to downloading freeloaders--people who illegally trade songs online. Its lawsuits target "major offenders" who have shared more than 1,000 music files each.

MUSIC FANS TUNE IN TO THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY

About 60 million Americans use Internet file-sharing networks (KaZaA is a popular one). The networks allow users to locate and download almost any song and copy it onto a CD without paying. This breaks U.S. copyright laws, which are designed to protect artists' words or images and the artists' right to earn a profit from them. It is illegal to make copies of copyrighted material without permission. Books, CDs and DVDs are all copyrighted.

Last Tuesday, Sylvia Torres of New York City paid $2,000 to settle the lawsuit against her daughter Brianna, 12. Like many downloaders, Brianna didn't know that what she did was wrong. Buying file-sharing software is easy. Owning it is legal. Using it to take copyrighted music is not. Critics argue that lawsuits are not the way to teach fans to respect artists' rights or boost sales. "CDs are far too expensive," singer Sarah McLachlan told TFK. "Kids wouldn't be so interested in downloading if CDs were reasonably priced!"

Universal Music says it will lower its CD prices on October 1. McLachlan hopes for a harmonious ending: "We can find a way to make the Internet work for everybody."

Next: Should record companies sue free-music downloaders?