NOTE FROM NEGATIVLAND: 431 searches with warrants and 2,490 sight seizures' without warrants suggest you might want to find safe houses for your master tapes. RIAA RELEASES YEAREND ANTI-PIRACY STATISTICS
1997 Anti-Piracy Statistics
Recording Industry Association of AmericaActions Taken 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 Search Warrants/ Consent Searches 101 69 82 96 83 Arrest/Indictments 275 329 441 225 211 Sight Seizures* 839 742 605 134 170 Guilty Pleas/Convictions 144 191 234 80 150 Civil Suits Filed 5 2 2 2 5 Judgements/Settlements 6 3 3 4 6 Internet Letters** NA NA NA NA 250 * Sight Seizures (without the necessity of a search warrant)
** Educational/Cease and Desist Letters Sent to Internet SitesPermission to cite or copy these statistics is hereby granted as long as proper attribution is given to the Recording Industry Association of America.
RIAA RELEASES YEAREND ANTI-PIRACY STATISTICS
Internet Piracy Campaign In Full Swing; CD Piracy Remains A ThreatWASHINGTON, March 5, 1998 -- The Recording Industry Association of America's yearend anti-piracy statistics indicate that while cassette piracy has dropped 80% over the last five years and cassette street vendors are dissipating, music piracy is rapidly moving towards the Internet and CD piracy. Highlights of the RIAA's 1997 anti-piracy efforts ran the gamut from suing three Music Archive Sites on the Internet, to conducting the largest criminal bootleg investigation in the RIAA's history, to confiscating a growing number of illicit CD- Recordables for the first time. And, the RIAA increased its interactions with its counterparts around the world that led to the seizure of hundreds of thousands of illicit CDs that originated in Europe and Latin America.
While the Internet and new technologies pose unparalleled opportunities for the industry, they also pose unparalleled challenges in copyright protection. Estimates indicate there are 91 million computers in the world connected to the Internet today and to meet the challenges of this developing environment, the RIAA focussed 80% of its anti-piracy resources last year to combat evolving forms of CD piracy and to protect copyrighted sound recordings in cyberspace.
"Last year proved that staying ahead of technologically advanced pirates presents a greater challenge than ever before," said Steve D'Onofrio, RIAA executive vice president and director of anti-piracy. "While we work to protect the artists, record companies and everyone else involved in the creative process, we remain committed to allocating the resources to educate Internet users. We will also continue to establish critical legal precedents before the technologies advance to the point that large scale online piracy runs rampant."
Challenging Online Piracy
Given the speed and ease of widely-transmitted information on the Internet, the potential harm to copyright owners is exponentially greater than traditional acts of piracy, according to D'Onofrio. For instance, Music Archive Sites (MP3 sites) can contain hundreds of different, unauthorized copyrighted sound recordings that can be downloaded in a matter of minutes.During the second half of the year, the RIAA saw a growing trend of unauthorized pre-released recordings offered for download on the Internet. Popular groups and individual artists, such as Pearl Jam, Van Halen, Madonna and Eric Clapton found their songs circulating over the Internet months before the official release date. The RIAA worked with the record labels, the artists and their managers, to notify the site operators and servers about the legal implications of their actions. In many cases, the sound files were removed within minutes.
Last year, the RIAA expanded its staff to include a team of specialists to monitor the Internet. In addition, the association is using an automated web crawler to electronically scan the Internet.
In 1997, the RIAA sent notification regarding hundreds of Internet sites informing them that they were infringing member companies' rights. The overwhelming majority were promptly shut down. The few remaining sites are seeking proper licensing or removing unlicensed recordings. The majority of the sites that came down were using MP3 technology, an advanced compression technology that allows users to download, and in some cases, upload hundreds of full-length, near CD-quality sound recordings, without the permission of the copyright holder.
In the latter part of the year, the trade group specifically addressed the growing problem of Music Archive Sites on university servers by initiating a college Internet Copyright Campaign to inform students and administrators about the legal implications of copyright infringement.
In June, the RIAA filed civil actions against three Music Archive Sites for the unauthorized reproduction and distribution of sound recordings. In each of these cases federal courts issued decisions and consent judgments in favor of the RIAA's position.
CD Piracy Moves Toward Uncharted Territory
While total seizures of CDs declined in 1997, the RIAA continues to view CD piracy as a serious problem. As a result of Operation Goldmine in March, 13 individuals were arrested and approximately 800,000 bootleg CDs were confiscated. In December, the defendants were sentenced to prison, fines and community service. According to The Washington Post, local record retailers that had carried bootlegs saw their supplies dwindle in the wake of Operation Goldmine. As for the remaining bootlegs, prices more than doubled and the retailers complained that "the big (bootleggers) with the best quality CDs are pretty much out of business."As a result of new and inexpensive manufacturing technologies, 1997 was the first year the RIAA saw a significant number of CD-Recordables (CD-R) in the pirate marketplace. (CD-R hardware costs begin around $400 and the blank discs are less than $1.) Pirate and bootleg CD-Rs are easy to spot as major record companies generally do not release product in this format: CD-Rs are typically gold on one side with a greenish tint on the non-graphic, or "read-only" side, and pirate and bootleg versions are most often found in general variety stores, for sale by street vendors or at flea markets.
Although the association's CD Plant Education Program has successfully enabled CD plants around the country to recognize illicit orders, the RIAA was forced to take legal action last year against Americ Disc, one of the country's largest CD manufacturing companies. In December, the trade group filed a lawsuit against the Canadian-owned company citing that a large volume of unauthorized CDs -- mostly confiscated by law enforcement from raids around the country -- were traced back to Americ Disc. In a separate action earlier in the year, the Asian Crime Unit of the Los Angeles Country Sheriff's Department, assisted by the RIAA, confiscated more than 39,000 counterfeit CDs from the first "underground" CD plant the RIAA has ever uncovered.
936,190 illicit CDs were seized in 1997, indicating a 38% drop from 1996. However, overall seizures have increased 98% since 1994.
442 unauthorized CD-Rs were confiscated last year, 355 of which were bootleg, the remainder of which were pirate. According to D'Onofrio, unauthorized CD-Rs in the pirate marketplace are a trend the RIAA expects to see continue throughout 1998.
Piracy Crosses International Lines
As advances in manufacturing technology, communication and transportation continue to facilitate a global pirate marketplace, last year the RIAA stepped up its anti-piracy efforts with its international counterparts. In September, the MIDEM Latin American and Caribbean Music Conference was held in the United States for the first time. Thanks to a well-coordinated effort between the RIAA, the Latin American music organizations and the Miami Beach Police Department, a successful piracy campaign was implemented specifically to thwart pirates at the conference. As a result, an Italian bootlegger who was selling large quantities of bootleg CDs at the conference was arrested. In addition, throughout the year the RIAA and FLAPF (Federacion Latinoamericana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas) conducted several joint investigations in Florida, Ecuador and Chile resulting in the confiscation of more than 9,000 unauthorized CDs. According to D'Onofrio, "Piracy crosses international borders. It's no longer an issue of Œour problem or their problem' -- the fight against piracy is now a coordinated global recording industry effort."When pre-released songs appeared on the Internet last year on servers located in other countries, the RIAA worked with the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and the Canadian Recording Industry Association to have the songs removed as quickly as possible. Combined efforts and around the clock monitoring impeded the activities of these online pirates.
Other Points Of Interest
As several major record companies released legitimate compilation packages into the marketplace, music pirates followed suit and before the end of the year, the RIAA raided a large factory producing only pirate compilations. In November, 15,000 DJ compilations and 200,000 insert cards were confiscated in Brooklyn. In December, the owner of a DJ service and supply company was arrested for producing and distributing unauthorized "For DJ Only" compilations.Counterfeit and pirate cassette seizures dropped 62% in 1997. The decline is largely a result of a crackdown on raw materials suppliers over the last couple of years by the RIAA. In May, three raw materials suppliers received the longest combined prison terms ever handed down in a single case for music piracy. Consequently, the number of counterfeit cassette labels recovered in 1997 fell by 97%.
Of the seven factories raided this year, two were using CD-R machinery to manufacture CDs -- the newest technology utilized by pirates; four of the factories were using traditional means to produce counterfeit and pirate cassettes; and the last was a bootleg music video factory. Without intervention from the RIAA, these factories combined had the potential to pump 4.2 million CDs, 3.1 million cassettes and more than 15,000 videos into the marketplace a year.
The RIAA is a trade association whose members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 90% of all legitimate sound recordings produced and sold in the United States. The RIAA investigates the illegal production and distribution of pirated sound recordings that cost the U.S. domestic music industry approximately hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Consumers and retailers can report suspected music piracy to the RIAA by dialing a toll-free hotline, 1-800-BAD-BEAT or sending email to badbeat@riaa.com.
RIAA Contact:
Lydia Pelliccia, lpelliccia@riaa.com 202.775.0101
1997 Anti-Piracy Statistics
Recording Industry Association of AmericaCounterfeit/ Pirate Seizures 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 Counterfeit/ pirate cassettes 2,037,917 1,212,110 1,105,326 1,076,155 411,719 Counterfeit/ pirate CDs 17,845 14,845 25,652* 208,797*+ 128,798 Counterfeit/ pirate CD-Rs NA NA NA NA 87 Counterfeit pirate labels 34,449,500 23,126,036 28,477,450 20,070,650 465,688 Bootleg Seizures 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 Vinyl NA 175 155 34,620 26 Cassettes 2,100 7,381 3,310 529 2,385 CDs 965 3,000 84,965 1,261,961+ 807,392 CD-Rs NA NA NA NA 355 Video (music related) 10,754 8,450 3,417 2,720 8,288 Actions Taken 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 Search Warrants/ Consent Searches 101 69 82 96 83 Arrest/Indictments 275 329 441 225 211 Sight Seizures (without the necessity of a search warrant) 839 742 605 134 170 Guilty Pleas/Convictions 144 191 234 80 150 Civil Suits Filed 5 2 2 2 5 Judgements/Settlements 6 3 3 4 6 Educational/Cease and Desist Letters Sent to Internet Sites NA NA NA NA 250 * Approximately 95 percent pirate CDs.
+ CD totals do not include an additional 499,081 discs that were confiscated by U.S. Customs agents during 1996 and reported in 1997Permission to cite or copy these statistics is hereby granted as long as proper attribution is given to the Recording Industry Association of America.
