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Listening to music is an enjoyable and relaxing pastime for many people. In the past, customers had to purchase compact disks to obtain their music, today, it is so easy and convenient to not only listen to your favorite music for but you can even keep it so you can play it again and again by simply downloading it. From the viewpoint of the consumer, this is very simple and convenient. However, from the music industry perspective, this has created a dilemma as sales continue to decline.

Today, you can obain free music by accessing the internet and locating sites that allow you to listen and download the music of your choice. The internet is available just about everywhere. You will rarely find a person who does not use it. We all use it for different reasons. One of which is to listen to internet radio. Some internet radio sites offer live streaming of music while others also feature free music download. This has presented a huge difficulty. These music files are all copyright materials hence will often be given without permission from the music producer.


Who has not heard of the legal action taken by the Recording Industry Association of America or the RIAA? These charges were levied against internet users from all stratas of life. The purpose of this action is to help buttress declining sales by enforcing copyright laws. After realizing that sales continue to drop and that the efforts made did not create significant impact against internet users whom they sued one by one, the RIAA have tweaked their complaints a bit.


Some of these law suits are still proceeding, however, efforts are now focused in a different direction. Instead of pursuing individual internet users, a letter of complaint is being issued to the internet service provider of suspected offenders. This makes enforcing music copyright laws more efficient. First, your ability to download music files is dependent on your internet connection hence once you are out of your internet service provider list, you will no longer be able to download files. Cooperating with internet service providers is an order of magnitude easier than pursuing individuals in court. This initiative has allowed the RIAA to differentiate regular users from the list of illegal down loaders. A significant proportion of this music is derived from an internet radio station.


Due to the fact that the RIAA efforts to halt music copyright infringement did not work well, the Supreme Court was not compelled to review this case. This decision has triggered another action from the RIAA. Instead of going after the people who download, they will only go after those users who are uploading more than a thousand files. The result of this strategy is that, if you download copyright music, you will not be charged, but if your then upload these files to a server for the use of others, they will pursue you in court.

There is no doubt that illegal music downloading is having an adverse effect on the music industry. With the technological advancement of internet radio and music download stores, there has to be a clear definition of what music piracy is.

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