File Sharing Speech

[DirtyDan]

Great idea kab, its what ive been thinking but i just.. am.. not... Dayaam am i this lazy!? Google time

[kAb]

Originally posted by DirtyDan@20 April 2004 - 21:22
Great idea kab, its what ive been thinking but i just.. am.. not... Dayaam am i this lazy!? Google time

Yes, you ARE that lazy

Get out of this forum and just do it already.

[DirtyDan]

Thanks for the motivation, ive been sitting here too much. Just googled for statistics and; first thing that shows up is exactly what ive been needing, hard facts. The RIAA released 25% less, raised prices ~8%, and only recieved a 10.3% decrease, taking note that this was AFTER they shut down the notorious napster. Before it was shut down, the cd sales were booming They also failed to take into account that our economy has gone to shit, and that music-only DVD sales jumped a whopping 5,000%! (from ~2000 to 100,000 ). Atleast thats what im going to BS in my speech, some of these facts are more specific to regions. Why am i informing you guys? Ahh! im addicted to the forum

[DirtyDan]

Im doing the speech tomorrow now i guess, here's my current one :

Napster; What comes to mind when I name this notorious company? Most of you are probably thinking of file sharing, music, lawsuits, piracy, and as the Recording Industry Association of America would like you to think, a shot down the music economies throat. You may be surprised to hear, however, that the RIAA’s own statistics show that during Napster’s prime, cd sales were at their height. The truth is, album sales only dropped after Napster was shut down in 1999. There are various causes attributing to this, such as the RIAA’s 25% production decrease, their 8% average price per unit increase, and the overall drop in the economy following the events of 2000-2001. Despite these factors, the change in earnings was only a 10% drop cd’s, less than the drop in production, showing an ever-growing interest in buying cd’s. Added to this, per album the RIAA actually sold an average 25% more to the consumer. Looking at the entire scheme of the RIAA’s sales past just cd’s, their drop over 2000-2001 was actually only a mere 4%. The more realistic blame of the loses they did suffer can be attributed to their lack of interest in their own musicians, as their cutback on investment shows a strong correlation to their loses.

What Napster actually did, was provided a community in which users could share and relay their music tastes over a wide range of people, and was used by some independent musicians as an avenue of advertisement. The RIAA seems to target these individuals, and even goes to the extreme of paying radio corporations off in an agreement to not play music from these independent artists; creating a monopoly over the whole industry of music and taking command in the worst way. Napster was eventually shut down, not too long after its powerful rise, through a lawsuit directed from the RIAA.

The RIAA’s approach at combating this music swapping has been at times outrageous and uneeded. Brianna LaHara, a 12-year old New York girl, was sued last year for sharing music through one of these networks. She and her family now face up to $150,000 dollars per song shared. The only justifiable reason for the actions taken here is for the RIAA to strike fear in those who use such applications. Why would they want to scare people like this? One reason for this could have been their “Clean Slate” scam, in which they offered people immunity if they were to admit their wrongs and start anew. Instead, this simply baited people into a situation that they could be taken to court over.

Today, these networks of music distribution still exist, although not as well as their predecessor Napster. The same effect seems to be taking hold, though, and the piracy of these music files is doing as much harm as it is helping in the aspect of sales. A study from Harvard even shows that online music downloads has had little impact on the music industry. Companies on the Internet are now also making purchasing songs for download increasingly easier and completely legal, such as the reformed Napster Corporation and Wal-Mart’s online music database.  Technology cannot and should not be stopped; it is a necessary component of advancing civilization. Although downloading music is still illegal, and an infringement of copyright rules, it can be a way to propagate new and coming music, just as the radio has in the past decades and continues to today.

Any suggestions before i try to memorize or atleast get this all down in my head? I need to rephrase some stuff i know...