May 6, 2003, Tuesday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 14A
LENGTH: 394 words
HEADLINE: Crank up the law enforcement
BYLINE: Val Azzoli
BODY: Today's debate: File swapping
Opposing view: Best legitimate services can't compete with free illegal
downloads.
Not long ago, a Justice Department official marveled at the fact that while
most parents would be horrified if they walked into their child's room and
found 100 stolen music CDs, very few have a problem with the idea
that their kids may have hundreds of illegally downloaded songs on their
computer hard drives.
This attitude that illegally distributing and downloading copyrighted music
through peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa or Grokster is somehow different
(and definitely less troubling) than shoplifting CDs from a store accounts
in large part for the epidemic of online-music thievery. This rampant
theft is undermining the livelihoods of artists and songwriters,
not to mention the very future of music itself.
The argument is made that the best way to change this attitude is to cajole
people into doing the right thing, specifically, to offer fans more and
better legitimate ways of getting music online. In fact, the music industry
has been doing just this, and very aggressively. In addition to the recently
announced Apple Store, Time magazine has noted that there "are already
a couple of dozen legal, pay-to-play downloading services, including Pressplay,
Listen.com's Rhapsody and Music Net," which are not only on the right side
of the law but are also "more reliable than Kazaa and its ilk."
But as good as the legitimate services may be -- and they are getting better
all of the time -- there is one basis on which they will never be able to
match their illegitimate rivals: price. Illegal downloads are free, and
no legitimate business can compete with free.
This is where enforcement comes in.
It is completely unrealistic to think that the legitimate "pay-to-play"
services can gain real traction in the marketplace as long as free illegal
downloads remain only a mouse-click away.
No one enjoys playing the heavy, especially not music people, who would
much rather spend their time making music than worrying about legal issues.
But the sad fact is that simply asking nicely is not going to stop the misguided
fans who think they're doing the world a favor by giving away what doesn't
belong to them.
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Val Azzoli is chairman of the Atlantic Records Group.