Singing the digital blues

Risk Management, April, 2008 by Morgan O'Rourke

A training video designed to help instruct U.S. prosecutors on how to confront music piracy cases was recently leaked to the internet. The video, which was produced by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in conjunction with the National District Attorneys Association, actually takes a somewhat surprising turn when it tries to link music pirates to drug dealers, terrorists and murderers.

In the video, Frank Waiters, a former Maryland state trooper and RIAA investigator, shares sordid tales of drug dealers selling CDs with crack enclosed in the cases and criminal hideouts that are not only home to guns, narcotics and counterfeit money but stacks of pirated copies of, say, the latest Justin Timberlake album as well. In a strategy reminiscent of convicting Al Capone of tax evasion, RIAA Attorney Deborah Robinson suggests that music piracy charges could provide the probable cause to pursue suspected drug dealers and terrorists, although it seems hard to believe that al Qaeda is selling bootleg Alicia Keys CDs to supplement their illegal activity, and especially not with the frequency that would make this a viable investigation tactic. Fearmongering aside, the most notable aspect of the video is that it highlights just how out of touch the RIAA is when it comes to its increasingly unpopular crusade against music piracy.

The interesting thing about the music piracy debate is that the RIAA is right. Music piracy is theft. Just because it doesn't involve a physical product does not make it any less illegal than shoplifting a CD from your local Wal-Mart. In the end, the artists do not get paid for their creation. So how has the RIAA become the villain here?

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Perhaps it has to do with a music-buying public that has become more and more frustrated with the inferior products that it was expected to buy. Any music fan can give you a laundry list of instances when they heard a song they liked on the radio and bought the CD only to find that the rest of the music sounded like a bunch of yowling cats trapped in burlap sack. Add that to the fact that it has become common knowledge that the artists only receive a small fraction of a $20 CD purchase, and the result is a customer base that feels cheated by big business yet again.

So along came a new medium--digital music. Disillusioned music consumers flocked to the format, sharing and copying music with the click of a button and at no cost. MP3 players quickly became the new millennium Walkmans, except now they were sleeker and held more music than most people had in their entire collections. Music fans were happy again.

Unfortunately, the music industry was slow to react and all of this took place before they could figure out how to make sure people were paying for it. But with demand at an all-time high, this was not a bad problem to have. By simply channeling the creativity of the industry into a new economic model that served the demonstrated preferences of its customers, the record labels should have been able to watch the money flow in. Bentleys for everyone, right?

Wrong. Rather than adapt to a new medium by creating new digital storefronts or adding value to the physical products to give consumers a reason to continue to buy CDs, the labels instead decided to sue their customers--the very people whose continued patronage and goodwill they depended upon for their livelihood. In the court of public opinion, their aggressive strategy backfired. Now the spokespeople for the industry are its greatest pariahs. Consumers who simply want to hear good music now seem to take great joy in circumventing piracy laws just so they can stick it to "The Man." The RIAA has basically been reduced to shaking its proverbial fist at the kids on its lawn while muttering in a delusional haze about how teenagers today are all a bunch of crackheads anyway. Not exactly the intended effect.

What is the lesson here? Three words: adapt, adapt, adapt. Just because something has been done a certain way since its inception does not mean that it suddenly can't change. The inexorable march of technology moves faster than ever, and it doesn't care how enamored you are with the status quo. Those that do not evolve with it will be left by the wayside, pitied, unloved and forgotten while they wail about demons only they can see.

Dig it.