The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has said yesterday that they're planning to launch a new anti-piracy campaign targeted at small businesses, threatening to file lawsuits against gas stations and convenience stories that sell counterfeit compact discs.
However, CD-burning technology has become widespread and cheap enough that small retail outlets are now making their own copies to sell, threatening in aggregate to cut further into the record industry's anemic revenues, the group contended. |
"This new initiative should serve as a clarion call for retail outlets of all shapes and sizes that we take music piracy seriously and they need to get their house in order," RIAA Chief Executive Hilary Rosen said in a prepared statement. "No one should think they operate below the radar anymore."
Monday's announcement displayed the increasing concern that record labels have shown over CD burning and reproduction as opposed to Internet-based file swapping. The record companies now consistently blame declines in their sales in the past year in part on the wide availability of CD burners as well as Internet services such as Kazaa and Napster, although skeptics point to other factors such as the weak economy.
Last week, the RIAA sent letters to 78 of the small retailers they found to be selling illegally copied CDs, offering them a choice between a cash settlement or a lawsuit.
Source: News.com
