The way the 'Big Bad Government' and the RIAA little piggies see music theft, is by P2P services. To combat this horror, the RIAA wants to implement a system of checks and balances of their own. By monitoring the activities of costumers of major internet providers the ISP, in cahoots with the RIAA, can deter the level of piracy. The RIAA would like to engage some-what of a "3 strikes" program, although few providers have made comments on the trials they're running.
With the recent big government involvement in nationalizing many of our country's corporate swine, why not let them dip their hands into this matter as well? The current copyright allows up to a 15k per song penalty. If the RIAA prosecuted cases equaling roughly 733,333 songs it would make up for years of "lost revenue", however in 20 months the RIAA had filed an average of more than 21,000 cases per month. In 2006 they had collected approximately $30 Billion not including out-of-court settlements.(1)
So, what is it we fail to see about the current state of our laws and justice system that allows these otiose lawsuits? (IE: on deceased 83-year old grandmothers who never owned a computer). Does the United States not have anything better to do? If we don't then maybe we should consider trying to stop piracy overseas, since that's hurting us more than piracy within the US. In 2007 the US lost $3 Billion dollars in pirated material to China, which is roughly a third of what they have collectively lost from us. The United States isn't even on the list of the Top 10 worst pirating countries. (Which include: Russia, China, Italy, Brazil, India, Turkey, Malaysia, Taiwan, Colombia, and Saudi Arabia)(2)
To further my point, the RIAA is now being sued for fraud, abuse, and legal sham. The RIAA has abused the legal system for far too long . TA-DA!
(1) This information collected from RIAA Watch blog at http://sharenomore.blogspot.com/
(2) This information collected from here
