The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is considering a lawsuit against one or more internet portal sites. We’re looking at all our options, including litigation, said a spokesperson. Earlier this week, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) sued a Norwegian partner of Lycos Inc. Lycos has been using FAST Search & Transfer ASA’a database to index more than half a million musical tracks compressed with the MP3 audio format. RIAA and the IFPI maintain that many of these tracks are copyrighted, and that the download and use of them constitutes piracy. By encouraging such use, the recording industry believes, portals may be tacitly condoning piracy.
Piracy or no piracy, record labels face stiff competition from the internet. RIAA’s latest annual demographic survey of CD consumers, released on Tuesday, showed a sharp decline in rock sales and in all purchases among the young. The continuing drop- off in the proportion of purchases accounted for by 15 to 24 year olds, once the mainstay of the market, is puzzling, RIAA reports. Potentially the rise of the internet as a free entertainment center, and the accompanying availability of free MP3 music files, could be contributing factors. Indeed, RIAA noted that the number of legitimate consumers buying music over the internet, while still accounting for only 1.1% of total purchases, more than trebled since last year’s survey and now equals the number of acquisitions made from television offers.
