What is the RIAAs official stance on digital music piracy?
Plain and simple: piracy is bad news. While the term is commonly used, “piracy” doesn’t even begin to describe what is taking place. When you go online and download songs without permission, you are stealing. The illegal downloading of music is just as wrong as shoplifting from a local convenience store – and the impact on those who create music and bring it to fans is equally devastating. For every artist you can name at the top of the Billboard music charts, there is a long line of songwriters, sound engineers, and label employees who help create those hits. They all feel the pain of music theft. The law is quite clear here, and fortunately legal downloading is easy and doesn’t cost much. Record companies have licensed hundreds of digital partners offering download and subscription services, cable and satellite radio services, Internet radio webcasting, legitimate peer-to-peer (P2P) services, social networking services, video-on-demand, podcasts, CD kiosks and digital jukeboxes, mobi
