Exclusive Rights Issues in Intellectual Property Law - Term Paper Example

            The music industry association of America (RIAA) is a membership association of music recording companies as well as trade associations that represent the recording industry in the United States (Hertzberg 5). The organization comprises record labels and distributors, who create, manufacture, and distribute about 85% of all legal music sold. Its goals are to protect intellectual property and first alteration rights of artists, as well as perform studies about the music business and examine pertinent regulations.

            Napster is an online music store, which allows for file sharing in the form of peer-to-peer file sharing of mp3 format music system. Originally, the company ran into a legal problem over copyright infringement due to illegal file-sharing through the online music store. This essay will illustrate and detail the efforts of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), since the launch of Napster to fight piracy. It will also describe the main tenants of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act and the law’s intended purpose. The manuscript will also discuss the pros and cons of such a law, the reaction of the technology industry, and the implementation of the proposed law.

The Recording Industry Association of America versus Napster

In 1999, the Napster website was launched in the US.  This portended significant impacts in the global music industry. Napster enabled musicians and music fans to trace music accessible in the MP3, and WMA music formats. The website made it feasible for its users to distribute their music files via the Internet with other users all over the world. Napster upheld a database of song files on the computer hard drives of other authorized Napster users.

Efforts against infringement of members' copyrights

            The RIAA opposes unauthorized sharing of music files. Studies show that since the association began functioning, peer-to-peer file sharing has concluded that losses incurred per download range from insignificant to significant. The RIAA has commenced high-profile lawsuits against file sharing service providers, as well as seeking legal redress on individuals suspected of such sharing. The organization opposed the use of techniques such as peer-to-peer decoying and spoofing to combat music piracy.

            By late 2008, RIAA had announced that it had stopped its lawsuits and instead would attempt to work with the ISPs who would use a three-strike warning system for file sharing, and upon the third would cut off internet services. However, in 2009 no major ISPs had announced they would be part of the plan, and Verizon had publicly denied any involvement with the plan.

Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

            Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a projected bill aimed at breaking down copyright infringement by restricting access to sites that swarm and facilitate the trading of pirated music (Laderman. D 10). Texas Republican Lamar Smith initiated SOPA in October with bipartisan advocacy.  The bill’s key purpose is to give power to U.S. law enforcement to battle the online promotion of copyrighted materials. SOPA targets overseas sites such as Torrent Hub and The Pirate Bay, which are host for illegal downloads.

SOPA Supporters

            SOPA supporters include CNN Money, Parent Company, Time Warner, and organizations such as the Motion Picture Association of America. These organizations claim that online piracy significantly promotes American joblessness since it denies content creators their income. SOPA’s expectation was to navigate through the committee approval in the house, but technological companies who oppose the bill mobilized their users to speak out.

 The Pros of SOPA

1. Copyright owners have the right to close down any website that replicates its particular contents.
2. The increase in revenue of the business, since customers will be gratified to acquire music from the source.

• The government will take action on any complaints in regards to piracy and whoever is found guilty will pay the charge that is held to the person (Howe, H 187).