What the RIAA is Doing About doing about PiracyOne of the most important jobs of the RIAA is to investigate the illegal production and distribution of sound recordings. It is estimated that such illegal product costs the music industry more than 300 million dollars a year domestically. The RIAA pursues a global policy comprised of education, enforcement, developing technologies, and when necessary, litigation.
The RIAA assists authorities in identifying music pirates and shutting down their operations. In piracy cases involving physical product, the RIAA works with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and prosecutors' offices to coordinate seizures of pirated product. The RIAA-assisted raids have closed down hundreds of U.S. and overseas manufacturing and distributing operations, and significantly reduced illegal CD and cassette vending around the country.
In cyberspace, the RIAA's team of Internet Specialists, with the assistance of a 24-hour automated webcrawler, helps to stop Internet sites that make illegal recordings available.
Based on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) expedited subpoena provision, the RIAA sends out information subpoenas as part of an effort to track and shut down repeat offenders and to deter to those hiding behind the perceived anonymity of the Internet. Information subpoenas require the Internet Service Provider (ISP) providing access to or hosting a particular site to provide contact information for the site operator. Once the site operator is identified, the RIAA will take steps to prevent repeat infringement. Such steps range from a warning e-mail to litigation against the site operator. The RIAA then uses that information to send notice to the site operator that the site must be removed. Finally, the RIAA requires the individual to pay an amount designated to help defray the costs of the subpoena process.
Every year, by assisting in criminal trials and initiating civil litigation, RIAA wins hundreds of guilty pleas from, or convictions of, music pirates, plus scores of settlements and judgments. RIAA is also pioneering copyright enforcement on the Internet. Since 1998, RIAA has settled five lawsuits against Internet music pirates that violated federal copyright laws by reproducing and distributing copyrighted sound recordings.
Although RIAA vigorously pursues those intentionally breaking the law, it prefers to educate all citizens so they know what is legal and illegal. New technologies have spawned new laws, so this effort is more important than ever. If you download from a P2P website through the USF campus network, your internet connection will be disabled and you will receive an email from the Incident Response Team regarding USF Network Terms of Service.
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