Music, Movie, TV and Broadband Leaders Team to Curb Online Content Theft

Recently there was an announcement that the Music, Movie, TV and Broadband leaders have come together to attempt to stop the online pirating of digital media content. Broadband providers have agreed to utilize a new system that will alert consumers when illegal content is being downloaded through their service. This will in fact help consumers because of the lawsuits over the past couple of years involving parents being sued for illegal music downloads. For example, a woman was fined $1.9 million dollars by a federal judge in Minnesota for downloading 24 songs. She was fined at a rate of $80,000 a song. She was the first case ever to go to trial for copyright infringement, and the fact of the matter is that she did not download the songs, but yet it was her son.

The initial spawn of this digital downloading era started over 10 years ago, but became most popular with Napster. Napster introduced a website where people could download music for free. This website started a trend and many other P2P file sharing sites were created. The music industry started to lose a lot of money with consumers not paying for music or movies. Artist called for the courts to put a stop the illegal downloading of media but they had no solution at the time.

Over the years the music industry has lost a large amount of money due to media piracy. The RIAA reported that each year over 16 billion is lost in earnings and 3 billion lost in state, federal and local taxes. With the new Copyright Alert System implemented it show slow down the media pirates. The government has also take additional steps to slow down the P2P file sharing websites, with the closing of the major sites such as Limewire, Bearshare, PirarteBay, and the television provider JustinTv.

This is exciting news for the entertainment industry because now there will be possible increases in revenue. The new alert system will force consumers to pay for the digital media content, which will slow file sharing and increase sales. Ultimately this will have an effect on the economy because jobs will increase as sales increase. Consumers will be given 6 attempts to stop the illegal downloading of content after the warnings issued by their Internet Service Providers. After that potentially Internet service can be disconnected or the consumer may be reported to the proper authorities. Being a part of the music industry I am glad to something finally stop the illegal downloading and help the entertainment industry back on its feet.