The RIAA, bane of the music lover's existence
The RIAA, or the Recording Industry Association of America is an industry group that represents the 4 major labels; Sony-BMG, Universal, EMI, and Warner. Together they produce 90% of recorded music. Originally, the RIAA was formed to confirm technical standards in the recording industry, but has since gotten involved in administering royalites and protecting copyrights. In the process, the RIAA has taken to suing many people for supposed illegal file-sharing activites, as well as ISPs and Universities.
In the case of ISPs, they sue to find out the IP addresses of copyright infringers so that they can sue the individual persons involved. The same is the case with universities, who are said to be hotbeds of illegal file-sharing. Thus far, names have been given out, however the RIAA has been unsuccessful in its attempts to sue the universities themselves.
Btw, that toilet paper in the picture is a real product that you can pick up here.
Some excerpts from Gizmodo.com's Anti-RIAA Manifesto
Piracy Lawsuits: Extortion and Privacy Invasion Under the Guise of Copyright Enforcement
The goal of the RIAA's lawsuits is to make people so afraid of being sued that they will stop downloading music. However, in their lawsuits they circumvent the law and extort money from people who haven't been given the benefit of a legal trial.
The process that the RIAA has in place to find and sue plaintiffs is designed not to provide a fair trial and prove guilt, but rather to confuse and intimidate people into settling out of court. What exactly happens is too detailed and lengthy for me to go into here, but Grant Robertson's Layperson's Guide to Filesharing Lawsuits is a must-read for anyone interested in what exactly happened in the 20,000+ lawsuits (so far) the RIAA has brought upon the citizens of this country.
Recently, the RIAA began looking to streamline the entire lawsuit process by cutting courts, lawyers, and any semblance of due process out altogether. Their new plan is to have ISPs point people to p2plawsuits.com (catchy!) and offer to discount their settlement by $1,000 if they pay up without going to court at all. By avoiding the court system, the RIAA can avoid paying those pesky lawyer's fees. Even better for them, they plan to require ISPs to retain all of their customer records for at least 180 days in order to be eligible for the $1,000 discount. This would make everyone's surfing and downloading history available to a non-governmental organization in order to make it easier for them to gather evidence for their intimidation lawsuits.
Smothering Innovation: If You Can't Access the Internet, You Can't Pirate Music
Beyond the harassment, extortion, and privacy invasion that the RIAA commits under the guise of lawsuits, they also stifle innovation by treating any open Internet source as a potential way for people to violate their copyrights. Recently, they filed a "motion for reconsideration" in a suit claiming that anything downloaded via an Internet connection is the responsibility of the owner of said connection. While the RIAA is trying to make it easier for them to get money out of the parents of kids they sue, the precedent that it would set would make it difficult, if not impossible, for open WiFi hotspots to exist. That means that the RIAA would make it impossible for you to connect to the web for free while out in a city that provides Internet access merely because you might use it to download music.
Rescuing Artists From Those Claiming to Support Them
As we're a technology website, we're most in touch with the RIAA's actions in response to music downloading as opposed to their history of poor artist management and unfair retail tactics. However, it's worth noting that issues such as the underpayment of artists and album price-fixing are quite serious and should be considered as good a reason as any to keep your money from going to their pockets. Two articles worth reading to study up on how major labels screw over the artists they claim to represent are Courtney Love's speech to the Digital Hollywood online entertainment conference and The Problem with Music by Steve Albini. Both are written by artists who have first-hand knowledge of just how badly major labels take advantage of musicians, and both are guaranteed to change how you view the music industry.
Recommended Links on the RIAA:
Gizmodo's Anti-RIAA Manifesto
Gizmodo's RIAA Boycott Roundup--lots of great links
RIAA--Wikipedia
RIAA accused of extortion
Ohio U bans all P2P file sharing
Judge orders Univ. of WI to give up names associated w/ file sharing