Lawsuits won’t stop new path to music

LimeWire is dead.

Well, at least from here on out. The classic file-sharing software, known for enabling users in illegal music downloading, was disabled Tuesday after U.S. District Court Judge Kimba Wood issued a permanent injunction against it.

Earlier this year, the judge had granted summary judgment in favor of the music industry’s complaints about the effects of the popular software.  According to CNET News, these claims basically stated that LimeWire and its founder, Mark Gorton, had “induced copyright infringement” and had “engaged in unfair competition.”

Wood also ordered LimeWire to encourage users to essentially ditch the software altogether. This included anything and everything, from offering a tool to remove the program’s files permanently from hard drives to installing copyright filters to implementing default settings to block sharing of unauthorized media files.

Clearly, this move struck a significant blow to online media pirates everywhere. Right?

Yeah. Right.

The music industry should stop ignoring the fact that file-sharing software is more plentiful than Lindsay Lohan’s run-ins with the law. The peer-to-peer network protocols of Gnutella and hugely popular BitTorrent feature countless clients — programs that download and upload using the protocol itself — that quite literally run the gamut from A to Z. It’s like an infinitesimal, hair-tearing, business-based form of Whack-a-Mole: bring one program down and another springs up in its place.

The industry could also not ignore the fact that we simply don’t discover, acquire and share music like we used to in the good old days. The age of the Internet has always been about innovation and greater connectivity; unsurprisingly, listening to music changed along with everything else.

The industry could, of course, make a move toward the ambitious and undoubtedly intimidating goal of adapting to the dynamic, malleable media world of today.

But who are we kidding? The Recording Industry Association of America probably won’t do any of that. It will continue to play Whack-a-Mole, struggling headfirst against the tide, unwilling to recognize the fundamental mess of it all. The RIAA has always done that and seemingly always will. The question is, why?

The fact of the matter is this: fighting — and winning — the small battles against illegal file sharing doesn’t accomplish anything. According to CNET, RIAA lawyers said LimeWire cost record labels about $500 million a month.

Five hundred million? That’s a comical statement when you consider the implication: that shutting down LimeWire will bring $500 million back into the industry. I would love to see the RIAA’s collective revenue increase by $500 million next month. I could show the new figures to my mermaid girlfriend and her pet phoenix.

Yeah. Right.

The problem with this whole scenario is that there is a fundamental issue at hand. Simply put, people like to hear free music. And in many cases, songs will be downloaded, heard and discarded — an effect of experimentation, of trial and error.

Not everything one tries out is worth keeping. But a couple of downloaded songs can pique some interest. And that interest can lead to a person becoming a fan — one that spends money to support their favorite artists. I know that’s true of myself, and it’s a sentiment that is shared by many I know.

This is a part of music culture today, and record labels continually seem ignorant of that.

And from an objective, economic standpoint of the matter, the music industry really can’t be losing as much cash as it claims it does. One download does not equate to “x” amount of money lost, but it’s this sort of theoretical mathematics that is used to calculate the absurd dollar amounts that the RIAA claims it bleeds out.

After all, people only have so much money to spend — and it’s entirely possible that those who don’t pay for music now wouldn’t automatically start paying for songs, even if the laws were impassable. It could be that there would just be fewer people listening to music.

The Guardian looked into these numeric claims. As it turned out, the publication found that many of the values that record labels spit out are based upon their own estimations and broad assumptions, such as the aforementioned “one download = one lost sale” idea.

It’s certainly interesting that the RIAA states their numbers are from a “credible analysis” by the official-sounding “Institute for Policy Innovation,” which happens to be a conservative think tank.

The analysis itself is pumped full of curious averages and chooses to completely ignore two very important aspects of the issue: the positive impact of illegal music downloads (primarily that it provides an enormous amount of publicity for artists) and the positive economic impact of file-sharing companies. But hey, we should believe everything we read, right?

Yeah. Right.

Music piracy is a problem and yes, downloading free songs is illegal. But the RIAA should spend less money and time aggressively pursuing the superficial causes of the problem and begin to assess the true foundations of the crime.

Digital music sales are plateauing, and CD sales are on the decline; in certain ways, both indicate that a substantial shift in how music is marketed and distributed is due. The RIAA has already had to give up throwing lawsuits at old ladies and 13-year-olds.

But if it wants to keep playing Whack-a-Mole, well, I guess it’s a free country.

Eddie Kim is a sophomore majoring in print journalism. His column, “Culture Clash,” runs Thursdays.