From CounterPunch:
Of course, by the RIAA’s terms, we commit piracy every time we share files on the Internet. That’s what the RIAA wants a bigger CHIP to deal with.
In reality, the RIAA pirated almost all the 400 million CDs sold in America last year, since the people who made the music didn’t get paid for them. But that logic would be lost on the subcommittee, since so few artists make huge campaign contributions and provide tickets to hot shows to the legislators.
This amounts to taxing us to make music more expensive.
If there has been an upsurge in piracy (the RIAA’s only rivals in unreliable statistics are the owners of major league baseball) the main blame goes to exorbitant album prices and the elimination of cheaper alternatives like singles. But the RIAA never takes any blame.
ZDNet’s quote from Rosen’s testimony is ominous: “Piracy is not a private offense. It hurts everyone by diminishing the incentive to invest in the creation of music. It should not, therefore, be viewed as a crime only against [the industry]…but against each of us.”
The most reasonable construction of this statement is that file exchanging is not just a violation of the law but a crime deserving significant punishment. It’s another step on the road to sending people to jail for sharing music.