RIAA President Is Highest Paid Among Trade Organizations

According to the folks over at P2Pnet, the president of the Washington DC based trade organisation, RIAA, rakes in a nice $3.2 million a year according to his 2009 filings. This lofty sum is a 240% pay increase over is 2008 pay package. This is on top of the RIAA's failed war on music piracy.

The RIAA is an independent trade association sponsored in the main part by the Big Four Record Labels: Sony, Warner, EMI and Universal, so it can spend its money on whatever it sees fit. That includes not answering to anyone when it blows over $30,000,000 in legal fees and recoups $1,250,000 against music fans.

So far, the RIAA has done little to curb the tide of music piracy. Their lobbying efforts have been questionable. Like when House Judiciary Committe member, Mitch Glazier, snuck a few lines into a bill giving the recording industry association ownership rights over every piece of music ever recorded in the U.S. Mitch was rewarded for his underhanded loyalty at the expense of musicians everywhere with a nice job and $500,000 starting salary at the RIAA a few months later.

The truth is, the RIAA needs piracy to continue to keep its' bankroll coming in. The mafia-esque organisation brings in more income through lawsuits than label contributions. Their recent lawsuit settlement on behalf of recording artists everywhere against music distribution service Limewire brought in $105 million. The artists they represented will get $0. Who are the real thieves here?

Things are only going to get worse for music fans and downloaders. The Obama Administration has appointed five former RIAA lawyers to top spots at the Department Of Justice. It is no wonder that the U.S. and RIAA have been writing the copyright law for Canada, Sweden, Spain, and New Zealand along with the passage of the secret ACTA agreement that was so secret congress didn't even know about it and it took a wikileaks leak to bring it to light.

Times have changed. The environment has changed. The RIAA has not kept up, and they no longer care about the business of actually creating music. What they know about is greed and the need to maintain power and control.



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Tags:  RIAA, mafia   

Jason Fisher    June 14, 2011