Senator investigating RIAA piracy crackdown

Republican Senator Norm Coleman, chairman of the Senate's permanent subcommittee on investigations has launched an investigation into the RIAA's crackdown on music piracy

In a letter to RIAA President Cary Sherman, Coleman criticized the group for issuing subpoenas to "unsuspecting grandparents whose grandchildren have used their personal computers" and others who may not know their computer is being used to download music.

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He asked the RIAA to furnish him with a list of its subpoenas; its safeguards against invading privacy and making erroneous subpoenas; its standards for issuing subpoenas; and a description of how it collects evidence of illegal file sharing.

"I recognize the very legitimate concerns about copyright infringement," Coleman said in a conference call with reporters. "This is theft. But I'm worried that the industry is using a shotgun approach."

I think it's good that someone is at least wanting to look into the RIAA's actions. I understand the concern about piracy, but I also think that the RIAA is making a bigger deal out of this than is warranted.

Not every person who downloads music from the net is attempting to get music without payingfor it. Many downloaders are trying to get music that is unable to be purchased - such as tracks from albums that are out of print or cannot be bought in the US. Others download a few tracks to see if they want to buy the entire album. I've heard from a number of people who've done that and ended up buying CD's that, had they not been able to check out the tracks beforehand, probably would have decided weren't worth the risk. I've even known people who've downloaded music off the net that were tracks on CDs they already owned, simply because it was easier and faster than ripping the CDs they have.

People like this don't usually turn around and offer the songs they have for download to anyone else, so they're neither stealing music nor are they facilitating someone else stealing it, either. The problem, of course, is how can they prove it? And what about people who rip a CD for their own use and don't offer it for download, but then sell the CD to someone else? Is that significantly different than people who used to make a cassette tape of an album before selling it to a 2nd-hand store? And how does someone who's done that prove they ever owned the CD in the first place? It may be that these are some of the reasons that they're more focused on people who offer many songs for download rather than the downloaders themselves.

At any rate, I think it'll be good for them to have someone looking over their shoulder a bit and checking on what they're doing, and how. The fact that it's a Republican is a bit surprising to me, but in a good way. Thank you, Senator Coleman.