Copyright follies... Part 2... The Issues...

Previously, in our little foray into the downloading of copyrighted material we discussed the parties involved. In case you missed it, here is a brief synopsis. When it comes to music (and other copyrighted material such as movies and to a limited degree software) there are primarily two parties in the "dance." The recording industry and their trade association, the RIAA, vs. the consumer. Simply put the RIAA wants to make sure that we all buy our music from them in the forms that they choose to sell it in. On the other hand, there is the consumer, who I think wants to buy music legitimately. Unfortunately, they are caught by the music/movie industry every time they turn around and want to do something that the music industry doesn't officially endorse.

So with the parties described lets see if the issues can be described.

Issue #1: This issue can be described in a multitude of different ways but I think it's easiest to look at the illegality of downloading. This isn't as quite cut and dry as one might think. So I'll explore some copyright law including fair use.
Issue #2: If copyright law says downloading is illegal, but current lawsuits are doing little to stem the tide of downloading, why does the RIAA continue this ill begotten policy of suing its customers? Here I want to explore the tactics of the RIAA and why they probably aren't working as planned. Also, a hit on what I believe is the greater piracy issue: global copyright infringement.
Issue #3: With copyright law failing to stop mass downloading, companies are trying to implement Digital Rights Management programs and what are the effects? What is DRM, why do they use it, does it work and why this further pushes people to download. This will be an exploration into the mind of a legitimate user and their descent into the world of copyright infringement.

Of course there are probably a dozen or more issues relating to copyright but I am hoping these issues outline a path for further discussions. So in the next post I'm going to try and tackle issue #1.