A trade group representing the American record industry
synonymRecording Industry Association of America(Organizations representing intellectual property rights in the music recording industry) Generally refers to the American Recording Industry Association
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade group representing the recording industry in the United States. Its members are composed of a number of private corporate entities that produce and distribute about 90% of American music records, such as record companies and distributors.RIAA is involved in a series of controversial piracy lawsuits on behalf of its members.
On December 3, 2021, Maria Kelly's classic song All I Want for Christmas Is You won the RIAA Diamond Award.[1]
The Recording Industry Association of America was formed in 1952 and mainly managesVinyl recordThe technical standard RIAA at the time of manufacturing and playing is balanced.RIAA continues to participate in the production and management ofsound recordingAnd playback system technical standards, includingmagnetic tape、Cassette tape、Digital audio tape, CD and software basedDigital technology 。
RIAA also participates in the collection, management and distribution of music licenses andRoyalty。
The Association is responsible forGold and Platinum AlbumandSingle recordFor more detailed information about sales, please refer to the list of best-selling albums and the list of best-selling singles.
The goal of RIAA is to maintain the globalCopyrightAnd the First Amendment, investigate the music industry [2] and supervise and inspect relevant laws, regulations and policies.
Corporate structure
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RIAA has become the chairman and CEO since 2003Miqu Banwo(Mitch Bainwol)Carey Sherman(Cary Sherman).Board of DirectorsThere are 27 members from multiple record companies.
RIAA represents a number of private company entity members who produce and distribute about 90% of American music records, such as record companies and distributors (see RIAA member companies).
RIAA's website contains a list of members who have been disputed in the past becauseMatador Records、Fat Wreck Chords、Lookout Records、Epitaph RecordsAndBloodshot Records(None of them are members) are listed in the table.Some companies may be automatically added to the list because they use RIAA members as distribution labels.
Sales certification
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RIAA held a reward plan for high sales albums. The plan was originally started in 1958. Singles and album albums with sales of $1 million will win the "Gold Award".In 1975, the plan was changed to be based on the sales of records. Singles and album records with sales of 500000 will win the gold medal. In 1976, the number of records with sales of 1 million will increase“platinumPlatinum Award, which increased the sales of 10 million albums in 1999“Diamond Award”(Diamond Award), this plan is open to RIAA members and non members.
RIAA also held a similar plan for the sales of Spanish music, named“Los Premios Awards”。
Committed to improvement
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RIAA hits hard viaFile sharingInfringement, especially for music files distributed via peer-to-peer (P2P) software on the Internet.RIAA claims that pirated music has led to an annual decrease of 4.2 billion yuan in the global music industry, which has harmed honest consumers, record companies, retailers and artists.
As of July 2006, RIAA has prosecuted more than 20000 Americans suspected of distributing copyrighted crops, and has solved about 2500 cases.
RIAA's policies and methods of suing individuals for infringement have been criticized continuously.Brad Templeton of the Electronic Frontier Foundation called RIAA's litigation action "spamming" and implied that their action was only to intimidate people.
Electronic Frontier FoundationAmerican Civil Liberties UnionAndPublic citizenOppose that RIAA and other companies have the ability to deprive Internet users of anonymity without allowing users to challenge the order in court.
RIAA throughIP addressTo find the suspected infringer, so they did not know any additional information about the person before the prosecution, which led them to issue subpoenas to a deceased grandmother, an elderly computer beginner, and a patient withMultiple SclerosisAnd some people who don't even have computers.Sometimes RIAA will even continue to prosecute in these cases, or will seek to withdraw the complaint without prejudice to legal rights (so as to avoid compensating the defendant for legal costs).
After learning of the death of one of the suspected infringers, RIAA provided a 60 day transition period for the deceased's family members to mourn the deceased, and then testified for their property litigation.
RIAA has also prosecuted children, some of whom are only 12 years old.
During the period from September 2003 to April 2004, RIAA held a "Clean Slate Program", claiming that it would grant amnesty to those accused of infringement "in the case of no infringement in the future".It was pointed out that the proposal was misleading and did not provide assurances in that regard.
As of February 2007, RIAA began to send letters to blame Internet users who shared files, and to direct them to a website that can use credit card payments for "discount settlements".
Litigation cases
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RIAA sued on December 7, 1999NapsterIt provides a service that allows users to download MP3 files from other users' machines. RIAA claims that Napster "promotes pirated music to an unprecedented level". In 2002, RIAA also accused Aimster of providing the same service.Napster went bankrupt during the lawsuit and was taken over by Roxio to provide a download service recognized by RIAA.
During 2002 and 2003, RIAA attempted tosummonsrequirementVerizon Sarah Deutsch, a lawyer of Verizon, questioned the validity of the subpoena in terms of procedures and privacy.The summons expired in December 2003 when the Federal Court of Appeal overturned the order of the lower court.RIAA claimed that this practice was recognized by the Digital Millennium Copyright Law, but the Court of Appeal ruled that the Digital Millennium Copyright Law only applied to data actually stored on Internet service providers, not on consumer computers.United States Supreme CourtIn 2004, RIAA refused to review the ruling, which led to the fact that RIAA must now file individual civil proceedings against each accused file sharer. Internet service providers and suspected file sharers have more legal means to prevent identity disclosure, making the whole process more expensive, slow and complex.The reason for the judgment was summarized by Judge Douglas Ginsburg.
In 2005, Patricia Santangelo caused news because she questioned RIAA's complaint against her. Although she successfully rejected the complaint against her, her children were subsequently prosecuted, and she was sentenced to 30750 US dollars for failing to respond to the accusation due to her absence from the trial of her daughter Michelle (who has now applied for withdrawal).Another defendant, Tanya Andersen, a 41 year old single mother living in Oregon, filed a counterclaim against RIAA, including an accusation that an anti criminal organization had eroded the legal organization law.RIAA requested her 10-year-old daughter's testimony.
Electronic Frontier FoundationAmerican Civil Liberties Union, public citizensOklahoma FoundationOfAmerican Civil Liberties AssociationAndAmerican Association of Law LibrariesSubmit afriend of the courtThe pleadings support Deborah Foster's application for attorney fees in the Capitol Records v. Debbie Foster case in the Federal Court of Oklahoma, requesting judgment and defendant's attorney fees and assertionsRIAAInappropriate investigation mode and abuse of legal procedures.RIAA requested the court not to accept the amicus curiae pleadings, claiming that "the claimant tried to wronglyplaintiffMovents at tempt to paint a false picture of Plaintiffs and the recording industry run amok.
On December 21, 2006, RIAA filed a lawsuit with a total amount of US $1.65 trillion against websites owned and operated by Russia.This amount is calculated by multiplying the legal compensation of 150000 yuan per song by 11 million songs.RIAA could not obtain the jurisdiction over the Russian website.
A key case, Elektra v. Barker, may end the fate of the RIAA litigation movement.In this lawsuit, Tenise Barker, a 29 year old nursing student in the Bronx, rejected RIAA's complaint for lack of clarity, and only "making available" does not constitute infringement according to the law.RIAA objected to Ms. Barker's complaint by saying that "providing" was indeed an infringement.After learning thatRIAAThe Computer and Communications Industry Association, the Internet Industry Association of America and the Electronic Frontier Foundation submittedfriend of the courtThe pleadings support Ms. Barker's motion and refute RIAA's statement.American Film AssociationLater, he submitted a defense to support RIAA, andU.S. Department of JusticeThe "Statement of Interest" was submitted to refute the argument put forward by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.This case was filed on January 26, 2007Manhattan Federal CourtDebate in front of Judge Kenneth M. Karas, Kenneth M. Karas said he would rule on the "provided" argument.As of June 2007, the parties were still waiting for the judgment of the court.
In February 2007, a judge of the Brooklyn Federal Court said thatRIAASufficient evidence must be provided to prove the legal compensation of $750 for each song in his lawsuit, because the price of those songs sold to retailers is $0.79.The record industry objected to the ruling, claiming that the defendant could not be responsible for adjusting the amount of compensation.
In the lawsuit, RIAA assumed that each pirated copy of a song represented a loss of sales and greatly increased the legal compensation to the face value of the record in the piracy case.
High profile lawsuit
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In October 1998, the Recording Industry Association of AmericaChicagoThe Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal filed a lawsuit claiming that Diamond Multimedia's Rio PMP300 player violated the 1992 Home Recording Act.The Rio PMP300 is of great significance because it is the second portable consumer MP3 digital audio player sold in the market.The ruling of a panel composed of three judges is in favor of Diamond Multimedia Company and paves the way for the development of MP3 portable player market.
RIAA also filed a lawsuit in 2006 to prohibit XM Digital Satellite Radio from allowing its subscribers to broadcast songs recorded on its satellite broadcasts.RIAA also sued several Internet radio stations.
Book controversy
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In 1999, Stanley M. Glazier, a professional lawyer of the Congress, inserted substantive words into a "technical revision" of the final copyright legislation without publication or interpretation, and classified many music records as "employment works", thus depriving artists of their copyright interests and transferring those interests to their record companies.Glazier was later employed as the senior vice president of government relations and legislative lawyer of RIAA, and vigorously defended the change after it was disclosed.The struggle against the controversial provision led to the formation of the Recording Artists Association, and successfully lobbied the legislators to withdraw the change.
Current regulations
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RIAA has supported and still supports several legislations that the United States believes will help prevent copyright infringement, including the 2006 Digital Content Protection Act, which is currently being considered by the Senate.According to the public knowledge organization and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, this will prevent the use of media content in new ways, and will prevent consumers from recording music, even if it is fair use.This will essentially create a radio broadcasting flag regulation.RIAA also supported the radio flag legislation that was tried to be introduced in the past.
RIAA also participated in opposing artists involvedfree speechLegislation of rights, such as restrictions on the sale of albums that may cause controversy or have parental advice labels.
Boycott
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Several Internet groups, including RIAA Radar, andGizmodoHe advocated boycotting RIAA member record companies in March 2007.
Cultural reference
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(1) Singer“Weird Al" YankovicSingles“Don't Download This Song”Ironically, RIAA sues infringers
(2) The FoxTrout cartoon on March 4, 2007 satirized RIAA's lawsuit, in which Jason tried to teach his iguana Quincy to download music, because "it's one thing for RIAA to deal with single mothers, widows, grandmothers, dead people, children... but it's crazy to accuse an iguana"
(3) The song "Legion of Stoopid" of Machinae Supreme interprets the abbreviation of RIAA as "Recording Industry Assholes of America",
Similar organizations
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(1)American Film Association（MPAA）To prevent film infringement in the United States, sometimes "* * AA" refers to both RIAA and MPAA.On April 1, 2006, John T. Haller satirized the two institutions on a joke website and fabricated and announced the merger of the two institutions, introducing another abbreviation for the fabricated merger entity: "MAFIAA" (American Music and Film Industry Association,Music And Film Industry Association of America），And "MAFIAA" and the English words of mafia and criminal groups“mafia”Approximation.
(2) International Federation of Phonogram and Videogram Producers,IFPI；IFPI represents more than 1450 members in 75 countries and industry associations associated with 48 countries.IFPI cooperates with similar national organizations, which are listed on this website.IFPI vsRIAAIt has something to do with it.
(3)British Phonographic Union(British Phonographic Industry, BPI; website) is the music industry association in the UK.They set upBritish Music Awards, and the distribution of gold, silver and platinum records based on the UK.At the same time, they also try to prevent and punish copyright infringement, and their movement is more gentle than that of RIAA.
(4)Anti piracy Alliance(Federation Against Copyright Theft, FACT; website) is an anti piracy organization in the UK, mainly dealing with film infringement.
(5)Canadian Recording Industry Association(Canadian Recording Industry Association, CRIA; website) is a non-profit trade group representing Canadian companies that create, produce and sell records.
(6)Recording Industry Association of Australia(Australian Recording Industry Association, ARIA; website)RoyaltyOrganization of.
(7)New Zealand Recording Industry Association, (Recording Industry Association of New Zealand, RIANZ) is a non-profit trade association of New Zealand producers and artists.
(8)SGAE, the "General society of Authors and Publishers" in Spain.
(10)Japan Record Industry Association（Recording industries Association of Japan，RIAJ）。
(11) ROMS, the Russian Organization on Collective Management of Rights of Authors and Other Rightholders in Multimedia in Russia,Digital Networks & Visual Arts）。
