A new wave of lawsuits has hit music fans engaged in illegal file sharing.
"We felt that we could not stand by and watch while an entire industry, the most vibrant music industry in the world, was being downloaded to death," said Cary Sherman, the Recording Industry Association of America's president, in an online conference. "That's why we launched lawsuits against the individuals who were distributing copyrighted files to millions of anonymous strangers."
The 532 new lawsuits include 89 users of computer networks at 21 universities across the country. Sherman said college students are obviously a problem because of the free and unlimited bandwidth on campuses. As a result, he said the impact of illegal downloading has had a major effect on record sales in stores near college campuses, causing many to be hit especially hard.
Rudi Thornburgh, sales associate at Natural Sound, a local record store, said the owner was afraid that downloading would affect sales in a big way, but there hasn't been a radical change.
"I know it is happening, but I wouldn't say it is killing us," Thornburgh said.
She added that the lawsuits are only aiding music lovers in resenting the record industry.
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The majority of downloaded music is skewed toward the top hits, Sherman said, seeing a similarity in the Billboard top hits and the songs downloaded most. But he said all genres of music are being hit.
We Buy Music, a UNM area record store, does not specialize in selling top-40 hits. James Bongard, owner, said he attributes the older variety of music in his store to his sales, which haven't been affected by illegal file sharing.
"I hear people saying that kind of thing, but business here is better than ever," he said.
Each illegal song downloaded has left fans with $750 to $1,500 penalties.
Online music services like iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster and MusicNow are offering ways for fans to access desired music to gain exposure to new artists, but Sherman said these companies are hesitant to invest the money needed to provide these services when they are competing with stolen copies of music.
The industry is responsible for 90 percent of manufacturing, distribution and creation of legitimate sound recordings in the United States.
Sherman said it has devoted a lot of time educating the public on the legal aspects of downloading, which hurts the people who make the music.
UNM has not seen any lawsuits thus far, and CIRT has also been educating students on the illegal activity. If caught illegally downloading music, they will be restricted by CIRT from using the Internet.
Sherman said losses in sales have thousands of label employees losing jobs, artists' signings falling and royalties getting cut in half.
"I don't think that is a symptom of downloading; it is just their excuse," Thornburgh said. "If their business ethics were a little more ethical, they would not bother trying to crack down on downloading."
Cases are being filed in different jurisdictions around the country, but are not specifically targeting any one school. Sherman said the industry plans to continue broadening the number of future jurisdictions.
"I can't imagine the lawsuits have affected anybody's downloading habits," Thornburgh said. "I can't imagine anybody has a lot of sympathy for the record companies."
