The music industry began using a novel tactic yesterday in its fight against music piracy -- sending instant messages that pop up on the computer screens of people as they are swapping unauthorized copies of songs.
The Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the five major music companies and hundreds of record labels, is using the instant-messaging systems of the Grokster and Kazaa file-sharing services to notify users that they may be violating copyright laws by "uploading" songs to be copied free by other users.
Grokster and Kazaa, the RIAA contends, are next-generation Napsters used to distribute songs free, which the record companies say violates copyright laws. The RIAA has waged a series of vigorous court battles to try to shut down the file-sharing services and has targeted individual users with lawsuits. The music industry blames online piracy for the sharp drop in sales of compact discs in recent years.
Instant-messaging systems allow people to send short text notes back and forth over the Internet instantaneously. Typically they're used chatty exchanges. The RIAA messages are uncharacteristically formal:
"COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT WARNING: It appears that you are offering copyrighted music to others from your computer. Distributing or downloading copyrighted music on the Internet without permission from the copyright owner is ILLEGAL. It hurts songwriters who create and musicians who perform the music you love, and all the other people who bring you music.
"When you break the law, you risk legal penalties. There is a simple way to avoid that risk: DON'T STEAL MUSIC, either by offering it to others to copy or downloading it on a 'file-sharing' system like this."
The RIAA is calling the IM campaign "targeted education." The RIAA has software that enables it to find users swapping songs on the Internet. When users sign up for file-sharing services such as Kazaa and Grokster, they can opt to open their computer hard drives to outsiders.
Other RIAA software travels the Internet, identifies file sharers, and sends "notice and takedown" messages, telling file-sharers to cease or face lawsuits or prosecution. Earlier this month, the RIAA sued four college students who it maintains are running large and illegal song-swapping services.
"It seemed like a very logical way to reach your target audience," said RIAA President Cary Sherman. "We can take out ads and do videos on Web sites, but you don't know whether you're hitting the right people. When you send an IM to someone offering music files at the time the music files are being offered, saying what they're doing may be illegal, it's the best way to target the message."
Andrew Lack, chairman of Sony Music Entertainment, said much of the illegal song swapping is done by a small percentage of users. "I think these IM messages will reach those individuals responsible for significant levels of online piracy," he said.
The IM tactic follows only days after a California federal court ruled that services such as Grokster are not liable for the activities of their users, a decision the RIAA is appealing.
Grokster's lawyer, Michael Page, called it ironic that the music industry is using Grokster and Kazaa for legitimate, non-copyright infringing functions when it has maintained all along that the only use for such systems was the illegal piracy of music.
"We agree with [the RIAA] that it's illegal to steal music and that the proper people to be talking to are the people who are stealing it, not the people who built the tools," Page said.
