The RIAA constantly blames file sharing when they haven't looked at the other factors. Although I'm sure they have but they're not going to mention it because it would go against their argument. The points they are conveniently forgetting to tell you is that pirating is nothing new and didn't sudden show up or become a problem until p2p programs arrived. Before the internet was ever invented people were making copies of cassette tapes and even VHS tapes. I know I had my fair share, but I also had my fair share of bought items.
So they ask how do we explain the decline in sales? Well this is how the long story goes. It started with the tech sector taking huge loses because rich "geniuses" invested millions of dollars in .com companies that never had a demand for their products. The average buyer also wasn't completely ready to make the jump to internet shopping so all the trillions of dollars spent on these companies were dumped with the trash. After that there were massive layoffs and since thousands of workers quit their other jobs and retrained themselves to jump on the tech sector bandwagon this meant that there was a sizable amount of people out of work and also a good amount of future works in or right out of college. This all brings us to the present. When the economy is doing poorly you can't expect your profits to be the same. Although for the RIAA it's very easy to have a scapegoat like file sharing. In a poor economy people are naturally going to cut back on all luxury items and anything in the entertainment industry falls under that category. File sharing does play a part in all of this but I don't believe it's the sole cause of all the huge losses they are talking about. The USA had a recession years back, but I don't remember a huge complaint about users coping cassette tapes even though coping tapes was as easy as drinking water.
The other factor they are forgetting is that the music industry is pretty flat in my opinion. Even though I can download songs for free I haven't downloaded anything for awhile. I've been averaging one song about every 2 months. Maybe that's only me but what if it's not. It is another factor in sales performance. So even if there were no file sharing programs, I really wouldn't be much of a customer. There are just too many cookie cutter artists now a days in my opinion. I believe this is due to the music industry only approving or trying to force music that they think the public wants and not what the artists thinks the public wants. Although that's all just speculation on my part based on claims that some artists are forced to play or act a certain way to make the music industry happy. There have also been claims that they have purposely killed off some artists because they were no longer wanted. Who knows that artist might have been the next great thing.
File sharing technology is also new and for some it's an exciting way of getting what they want. The convenience and benefit of getting exactly what they want appeals to some people. For example, being able to get the one great song from an album rather than having to get the whole album. I've wasted plenty of money on one hit wonder groups in the past and would like to avoid that whenever possible. As for videos, after a hard day of work and school I'm usually not in the mood to go out and rent something or go to the theatres. It's nice to come home and have the video waiting for you to watch(most of the time depending on how fast you can download it). The movie industry also don't realize that for couples who have children going to the theatres can cost way more than they are willing to spend due to the cost of hiring a baby sitter. During times of a poor economy people are going to try and cut corners so if there isn't another cheaper alternative or even simply just another convenient alternative like paid downloads then of course they are going to use p2p programs. If a movie is worth it then I still try to watch it in the theatres, but it would be more convenient for me to watch the rest at home. Money is only half of the equation, but the entertainment industry would like us to think that it's the sole factor.
But I believe the real problem is that the entertainment industry haven't yet figured out a way to captialize on this new media called the internet so they are they are crapping their pants about what to do. The easiest thing to do is ban it until they can come up with a solution rather than letting it get out of control.
Anyhow, this is how I see it rather than the RIAA BS they are telling us. Their idea of taxing ISPs just shows they still don't get it. Also in RIAA's case this is unjustified for me because I rarely download music. If they want to know the truth I actually download more tv shows than anything else because it's more convenient then always making sure I have enough tape left to record something since I record several shows at once. It also takes up less space storing these videos on the hard drive waiting to be viewed rather than on VHS tape.
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