The RIAA is taking more and more aggressive measurements to end online music piracy but as we've said all along, piracy really can't be stopped. The RIAA needs to take a different course and according to this article, the key lies in education, especially with younger children.
It's understandable that the RIAA thinks that enforcement is the only way to make customers understand that downloading copyrighted music is wrong, but turning your customers into prosecutable crooks could intensify the outrage many music fans already feel:
A good starting point is education. The RIAA claims that it "works with" universities and corporations to educate them about the evils of piracy. In reality, the campaign has amounted to little more than a series of threatening letters. On Nov. 21, the U.S. Naval Academy acted on the industry's request to crack down on illegal music trading when it seized almost 100 computers from students suspected of downloading unauthorized songs from the Internet. If the midshipmen are found guilty, they face possible loss of leave, court martial, or even expulsion. The incident provoked a wave of protest -- and disgust -- in the technology and university communities. |
A better way would be to spend time and money educating younger children on the concept and importance of copyright. One program already under way is a fifth-grade curriculum, developed in conjunction with Scholastic Inc., that has been introduced at 10,000 schools across the country, a part of the whole generation of teens whose first stop for music is the Internet, not the local music store.
The article, which was submitted by Afrayem (thanks!), also adds that legitimate Internet music services, such as MusicNet and PressPlay need to be improved in order to get a hold of music piracy.
It's a shame really that a lot of the articles, such as this one, never mention the fact that downloading music from the internet is not as bad as they always claim. People who are downloading free music often wouldn't have bought the album anyway, but people who are into the band or music actually buy more CDs than they otherwise would have done because of the internet.
Source: BW Online
