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Due to the entire clamor about the RIAA and the recent lawsuits as regards copyright infringement this organization has become overgrown with different myths of various degrees of veracity. In order to understand the situation better, let’s look more precisely at their top 12.

Myth # 1

The RIAA benefits from CD sales
The truth is that the RIAA is a trade group. Therefore, it was founded by its members, who are the recording companies, i.e. music labels constituting in the U.S. music industry. There is no doubt about the fact that they benefit from CD sales, but it concerns each one of these companies, not the RIAA itself.

Myth # 2

Fraudulent downloads mean lost money for the RIAA members.
The recording companies often claim that every fraudulent download means lost sales for them. But such declarations may be considered as right only in a certain percentage of cases. If anyone is going to download something free or charge, it’s doesn’t necessary mean that they would have paid their money for this song or album. We all know that what we get for free sometimes greatly differs from what we buy for money.

Myth # 3
The RIAA methods are illegal
All the statements concerning the dirtiness and illegality of the investigating methods used by the Association are more emotional than based on the facts. Despite of their ethical side, those actions are in perfect consistency with current legislation represented by the DMCA. However, the hot lawsuits expose is the imperfection of this copyright law.

Myth # 4
When you buy a CD, you become the owner of its content copyright.
This myth is probably the most popular of all the myths concerning not only the RIAA, but also other copyright matters. Nevertheless, its still exist. After buying CD you have a license only to use this single copy. It means that you definitely don’t become the copyright holder. Therefore, you don’t have the right of sharing the contents of your CD.

Myth # 5
If you download a single song for free, the RIAA would never treat you like a criminal
When you use the peer-to-peer program to download music of movies from the Internet, it is configured by default for sharing all of the music from your PC in the Internet. You may not be willing to share your music, but it can be done regardless of your intentions. Consequently, you may become the target of the RIAA control. But here is another myth, which is almost contradictor to this one.

Myth # 6
The RIAA is going to sue you for occasional downloading
At the moment the RIAA tells the papers that it prosecutes only those users who have shared more than one thousand songs across the Internet. If you are not an up - loader, just a downloader, then the RIAA wouldn’t persuade you. However, you shouldn’t download copyrighted music if the copyright owner hadn’t authorized you for this, since it’s illegal.

Myth # 7
Downloading any music files from the Internet is a piracy.
The notion of downloading files has practically become a synonym of copyright infringement. It’s completely wrong, since there are still a lot of authorized places to get MP3s in the Internet. They are: iTunes Music Store, Listen.com Rhapsody, eMusic etc. You can always find free and legal mp3s there.

Myth # 8
As to the RIAA, ripping purchased CDs is a crime
In fact, there were some statements of the RIAA representatives, according to which you have bought and backing ripping CDs and it’s not a non-infringing use. On the other side, the attorney of the RIAA asserted that ripping of the CD you have bought and upload its contents on your mp3 player doesn’t fall apart with law. You see, “not a non-infringing use” does not equal “a crime”. So your actions are legal.

Myth # 9
Sharing files comes to its end
How do you think, will it be possible to terminate the practice of sharing books? Is there an organization which is able to do this? Definitely no! The same works with reference to file sharing: if anything is a part of a human nature, this cannot be eliminated. Of course, something is going to change. Maybe there are some amendments to be made in the DMCA. The question remains open.

Myth # 10
The RIAA is a menace
The RIAA was established with the purpose of protecting the copyrights of its members. Such a designation implies no evil intentions. This myth is maintained by users infuriated with partly imaginary encroachments upon their rights, and because of numerous misunderstandings around this issue. The idea of upholding the copyrights is fair and reasonable in all the times, though at present it comes through quite an intricate period.

Myth # 11
Every infringing download represents lost sales.
The labels love to recite this statistic in various forms, but anyone with an ounce of common sense can tell you that just because someone was willing to download something for free, it doesn’t mean they would have bought the song on an album. Most downloaders grab lots of stuff they would never, in a million years, plunk down their hard-earned money for. Therefore, those downloads do not represent lost sales, no matter what the RIAA’s public relations team tells the papers.

Myth # 12
The RIAA never files complaints against people who only occasionally download a song or who have downloaded or shared fewer than 1,000 songs.

Last year total digital sales were about $2.9 billion.