Post by Auset on Oct 2, 2003 10:15:40 GMT -5
Rapper's Chuck D. and LL Cool J both testified before a panel of Senators yesterday on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.
The two rapper's comments highlight how divided the entire music industry has grown in relation to peer to peer file sharing, the genie that Shawn Fanning's Napster let out of the bottle, in 1999.
Cool J sided with the industry, saying "when you do something, you should be compensated. If a contractor builds a building, should people be allowed to move into it for free just because he's successful?"
Cool J said that he supported independent artists' decision to distribute music over these far reaching networks, but said that the majority of the artists want to be compensated for their works.
"America is a country where the entrepreneurial spirit is everywhere. The real question is should you be compensated for your work or not."
Chuck D., who was one of the first artists to distribute a commercial release over the net with Public Enemy's There's A Poison Going On, called the peer to peer networks "new accessible radio."
Chuck D., who split with Def Jam due to creative differences, said that he never felt that his copyrights were protected by the industry in the first place.
"I trust the consumer more than I trust the people at the helm of these (recording) companies," Chuck D. said. "As far as rock 'n' roll, blues licks were taken from the Mississippi Delta without authorization, so people can spend $180 to check out the Rolling Stones do it all over again. So the record industry is hypocritical."
But Mitch Bainwol, the Chairman and CEO of Recording Industry Association of America, insisted that consumer downloading on the Internet was the reason for the music industry's tailspin.
"The root cause for this drastic decline in record sales is the astronomical rate of music piracy on the Internet," Bainwol said. "Computer users illegally download more than 2.6 billion copyrighted files (mostly recordings) every month. At any given moment, well over five million users are online offering well over 1 billion files for copying through various peer-to-peer networks."
Bainwol said that in the past three years, shipments of recorded music in the United States have fallen by 26 percent. Bainwol complained that the worldwide recording industry has fallen from a $40 billion dollar industry in 2000, to 32 billion in 2002.
The RIAA announced yesterday that they would attempt to settle with consumers they find in violation of copyright laws relating to peer to peer file sharing, before filing lawsuits.
The two rapper's comments highlight how divided the entire music industry has grown in relation to peer to peer file sharing, the genie that Shawn Fanning's Napster let out of the bottle, in 1999.
Cool J sided with the industry, saying "when you do something, you should be compensated. If a contractor builds a building, should people be allowed to move into it for free just because he's successful?"
Cool J said that he supported independent artists' decision to distribute music over these far reaching networks, but said that the majority of the artists want to be compensated for their works.
"America is a country where the entrepreneurial spirit is everywhere. The real question is should you be compensated for your work or not."
Chuck D., who was one of the first artists to distribute a commercial release over the net with Public Enemy's There's A Poison Going On, called the peer to peer networks "new accessible radio."
Chuck D., who split with Def Jam due to creative differences, said that he never felt that his copyrights were protected by the industry in the first place.
"I trust the consumer more than I trust the people at the helm of these (recording) companies," Chuck D. said. "As far as rock 'n' roll, blues licks were taken from the Mississippi Delta without authorization, so people can spend $180 to check out the Rolling Stones do it all over again. So the record industry is hypocritical."
But Mitch Bainwol, the Chairman and CEO of Recording Industry Association of America, insisted that consumer downloading on the Internet was the reason for the music industry's tailspin.
"The root cause for this drastic decline in record sales is the astronomical rate of music piracy on the Internet," Bainwol said. "Computer users illegally download more than 2.6 billion copyrighted files (mostly recordings) every month. At any given moment, well over five million users are online offering well over 1 billion files for copying through various peer-to-peer networks."
Bainwol said that in the past three years, shipments of recorded music in the United States have fallen by 26 percent. Bainwol complained that the worldwide recording industry has fallen from a $40 billion dollar industry in 2000, to 32 billion in 2002.
The RIAA announced yesterday that they would attempt to settle with consumers they find in violation of copyright laws relating to peer to peer file sharing, before filing lawsuits.
