Law and Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Law and Economics - Essay Example The back and forth between RIAA and the MPAA (Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America) and copyright infringement has been a staple of the news since Napster was originally shut down back in the last 1990’s. Originally, groups such as the RIAA and MPAA have targeted the copyright infringer themselves; however, the specter of taking a 12 year old girl to court and forcing a settlement on her that equates to tens of thousands of dollars in judgment per song downloaded was counterproductive to their cause. The copyright battle has digressed into a type of action/reaction battle that pits private entities against oftentimes ill-informed web-users caught between an oftentimes impartial judiciary branch. As such, the MPAA and RIAA changed their tactics and began to target the method through which the files were being shared; namely, the torrent trackers that hosted the content. This method failed to achieve the desired result as torren t trackers merely moved their servers to nations that were outside the jurisdiction of the MPAA and RIAA. As a last resort, the MPAA and RIAA have began bringing suits towards the ISPs(Internet Service Providers) that provide the link to the information that copyright infringers download. This practice has achieved mixed results. As is the specific case in Australia, the High Court dismissed the case brought by MPAA and RIAA representatives that would have required ISPs to suspend the accounts of known copyright infringers. Although the MPAA and RIAA have a point with regards to the level of copyright infringement that their interests see violated on a daily basis, the fact of the matter is that these organizations are pursuing a somewhat minor problem with an heavy handed and categorical approach that has severe effects on the way that everyone uses media and data. As a community, file sharers (copyright infringers) vehemently defend their right to own, acquire, distribute, and dis seminate any and all forms of media and information. To this group it is seen a right of free and open societies to remove all constraints to the free flow of information. However, on the flip side, copyright holders and those that have labored to create intellectual property are interested in protecting it from threats to its overall profitability. As such, a prime threat to profitability of intellectual copyrighted information is illegal file sharing. These two groups are increasing intractable in their support and defense of their respective practices. As such, to better understand the true implications of their respective actions, an empirical analysis must be performed to ascertain the negative attributes that file sharing may or may not have with relation to intellectual material. Although it would appear to seem a very straightforward answer as to whether illegal file sharing has directly affected music and film profits, the answer is anything but (Goel et al, 2010). A study by the University of North Carolina found that an album that was leaked up to a full month ahead of its scheduled release (and vigorously downloaded during this time) would actually experience a slight boost in overall sales (Dewenter et al, 2012). This non-expected result is just the tip of the