Background

*The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is an industry trade group representing the music recording industry. Their function varies from standardizing frequencies to certifying "gold" or "platinum" album awards for albums which sales exceed a certain number of records. The RIAA also manages music licenses and royalties for the labels it represents. *The RIAA has been in contentious discussion in popular culture as well as news media, as they have led the "crack-down" on file-sharing, or redistribution (usu. over the internet by means of peer-to-peer networks) of their media without consent of the copyright holder. The P2P revolution began with companies like Napster, which, largely due to action by the RIAA, was bankrupted and the service was taken offline, to be later replaced by a legal pay service run by Roxio. *The RIAA has since led a campaign against file-sharers under the provision of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). Not only companies responsible for the illegal redistribution have been sued and had charges brought against, but a large number of individuals as well. These actions are supported by large numbers of members of the recording industry, from musicians to producers, but has also been demonized by a large number of people from within the industry and without.