Most Americans surveyed say the music business should knock it off with suing Internet music downloaders, according to legal Website FindLaw, even though other legal experts say the suits are not groundless and consumers should know copyright laws as well as their legal rights before hitting the peer-to-peer networks.
This survey's release came as the Video Software Dealers Association announced an opening session discussion on online piracy and related issues for their July 14 Home Entertainment 2004 gathering in Las Vegas.
FindLaw's survey found that 56 percent of the thousand adults surveyed nationwide opposed the P2P suits, while 37 percent backed the Recording Industry Association of America and seven percent had no opinion at all about the matter. Younger Netizens opposed the suits more than older ones did, with almost two thirds of those 18-34 years old saying the music industry should not sue.
Those opposing the suits will not find a sympathizer in Hamline University School of Law intellectual property teacher Sharon Sandeen. "Although the RIAA's lawsuits are unsettling to many, they are based upon sound law because it is a clear violation of copyright law to make a verbatim copy of a protected sound recording," she said.
"The underlying public policy at work is the notion that without copyright laws, musical artists would be less inclined to create music and, as a result, there would be fewer sound recordings," Shandeen continued. "So the individuals who complain about the lawsuits should ask themselves: 'Would I rather live in a world with freely distributed but less music, or pay for the music I enjoy so that there will be more of it?'"
The FindLaw survey findings followed 482 more copyright infringement suits filed by the RIAA in St. Louis, Denver, New Jersey, and Washington last week, bringing the total sued since last September to over 3,400, with 600 settling for what FindLaw said was an estimated $3,000 each. None of the RIAA suits had gone to trial at this writing.
Sandeen said she thinks many who learn about copyright law and its purpose support it, while adding that public opposition to the RIAA suits might be in part because "some people" object to the RIAA's perceived hard-handed tactics in the matter.
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) recently introduced a bill to let performers sue peer-to-peer network software makers if their networks are used to download copyrighted music illegally, a bill critics have said would, if it became signed into law, all but ban P2P networks regardless of how they are used.
Marci Hamilton, a professor at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, said there is no such thing as free music downloading in the end – and compared P2P downloading to shoplifting.
"The freewheeling early years of the Internet led adults and teenagers alike to believe that whatever came across their computer screen could be and ought to be downloaded cost-free," she told FindLaw. "In many ways, downloading is like shoplifting: an exciting and slightly risky diversion, a seemingly petty vice in an otherwise law-abiding life. But like shoplifting, illegal music downloading violates the law and exacts a cost on society."
Those violations and costs are sure to be part of the VSDA discussion at Home Entertainment 2004. "Piracy, or more accurately, the theft of our capital assets, is the gravest threat confronting the entertainment industry," said VSDA president Bo Andersen announcing the gathering. "It menaces every segment of the industry. Piracy is an attack on all of us, and we must be united in our response."
Scheduled panelists for the discussion include Motion Picture Association of America executive vice president for governmental relations Fritz Attaway; National Association of Theatre Owners president John Fithian; entertainment and new media attorney Matt Oppenheim of Jenner & Block; Digital Media Association executive director Jonathan Potter; British entertainment and consumer technology journalist Barry Fox; and, Andersen himself. The discussion will be moderated by ABC News correspondent Robert Krulwich.
The MPAA has estimated online piracy costs the film industry about $3-4 billion around the world, not including losses to American retailers, while the VSDA says piracy costs retailers more than $1 billion – a problem Andersen said needed to be addressed by the industry in a coordinated education and enforcement attack, and by offering consumers lawful alternatives.
The music industry already has such alternatives – especially Napster, the granddaddy of the P2P world, which was resurrected last year as a pay-to-play music download store; the success of Apple's iTunes Music Store since its spring 2003 unveiling; and, more in the works.
"Everyone involved in the creation, distribution, exhibition, sale, and rental of entertainment products should be involved in the solution," Andersen said. "I am very pleased, therefore, that so many leaders in our industry will be taking part in this important discussion."
For registration information for the Home Entertainment 2004 gathering, visit Home Entertainment 2004 on the Web or phone (888) 778-8892.
