Heads of the RIAA rail against student piracy in op-ed piece

Culver City (CA) - In the wake of a new round of anti-piracy lawsuits filed by the RIAA, the organization's leadership is taking its message directly to students and faculty in an Op-Ed piece. The piece, written by Mitch Bainwol, Chairman and CEO of the RIAA, and Cary Sherman, RIAA's president, was published March 15th in the Inside Higher Ed website. In the piece, Bainwol and Sherman detail RIAA's struggles against piracy calling it "massive theft".

The RIAA recently sent out 400 new lawsuits against university students and while Bainwol and Sherman call it an "unprecedented action" they also say, "Unfortunately, it was also necessary."

They also say that the "massive theft" that comes from student piracy has caused billions of dollars in losses and thousands of lost jobs in the recording industry. They also claims that the music piracy problem has closed down record stores and that it is often difficult to find such stores near a university campus. This message has been often repeated by the RIAA and should come as no surprise to our readers.

The solution to the piracy problem is simple, according to the RIAA. Bainwol and Sherman say school's don't just have a legal responsibility, but a moral one as well to police their own networks. Network administrators should install firewalls that filter or even block peer to peer networks, according to Bainwol and Sherman and the schools should educated their students into legal and sometimes free alternatives to peer to peer music sharing.