MPAA, RIAA, and Piracy

I'm not exactly sure how to accurately and vividly describe my feelings on the issue of piracy. One thing I do know is that I don't believe that sharing music over P2P networks is illegal. In my opinion, it should be legalized or the RIAA should at least stop bringing lawsuits against people. The movie industry, on the other hand, is a different story. I know the intent behind illegally downloading music and movies is the same, but, in my opinion, the circumstances are different. I don't think it affects the music industry the same as the movie industry. Therefore, I think music should be legal to download, but movies should at least require a fee of some sort.

I found an article that is about dead on with how I feel on the issue:

Legal Piracy

I'll close with my prediction that, unless something changes, what we now consider to be media piracy will one day become legal. Between the MPAA and RIAA I've never seen a bigger disconnect between what they are supposedly trying to do and what they are actually doing. In their efforts to combat piracy they are showcasing how power can be misused. The result is a growing world trend to legalize piracy to protect children and parents.

The latest instance of this is the emergence of an apparently legal high quality piracy site in Sweden called "The Pirate Bay," which is becoming the only place to find movies you can't even buy in stores. Top titles include "Inside Man," "Fearless," "Ultraviolet," and "Failure to Launch." A political party is forming in Sweden around this concept. France seems well on the way to legalizing this behavior as well.

Companies and organizations often forget that as one age group transitions out of leadership positions and the next generation transitions in, rules change. Kids currently view downloading tunes and movies as a privilege they would like to continue. In addition, an ageing group of boomers wants to be able to watch movies at home and not feel threatened for doing so. Sometimes you can hold onto something so tight you kill it and that, to me, appears to be what is happening here.

Unless the industry can find a way to reward and encourage legal behavior while enabling the things their customers want to do, they will lose what they were trying to protect and the only people they'll be able to legitimately blame is themselves.