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Music
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What does RIAA stand for?
Answer

Wiki User
October 15, 2007 10:08PM
(Recording Industry Association of America, Washington, DC, www.riaa.com.) A membership association of music recording companies. Its goal is to promote the record label industry and protect the rights of copyright owners. It was a major contributor to the SDMI digital distribution system. Spanning decades, RIAA's Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond awards for successful albums are coveted marks of achievements by musical artists. The IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) is the European affiliate to RIAA (www.ifpi.org). http://www.answers.com/topic/riaa?cat=technology
Related Questions
Asked in Music, Acronyms & Abbreviations
Who is the RIAA?

RIAA is responsible from all Gold, Platinum and Diamond
recording awards, based completely on sales.
Actually RIAA awards are not based on sales - they never have
been. They are based on royalties paid to the performer. ANY record
company will say that their performer sold 10,000,000 copies - as
several companies have done this! But when it comes to paying for
those royalties - they provide NO proof whatsoever!!!
Asked in Internet, Online Music, Web Downloads
Are music download sites still illegal even when you pay a lifetime membership fee?

This is a very tricky question. It depends on the website in
question and whether not they have been authorized by the RIAA to
do business. To put it simply, when a music site launches they are
supposed to ask the RIAA if they can do business, then they
purchase licenses or rights to make the songs available for
purchase. A lifetime membership fee music download site would
probably not make the RIAA very happy because say you pay $1 or
$1,000, over the LIFE of the membership, the profit the RIAA and
its labels make per song would probably be very, very, little.
Asked in Limewire
Has a single person been caught and charged for using LimeWire?

Yes. The RIAA (Recording Industry of America Association) tracks
and will prosecute IP addresses they find violating copyrighted
material.
One example is at North Carolina State University, where in the
Fall of 2007, 32 students received letters from the RIAA asking for
$3000 to settle the charge of copyright infringement. The NC State
students did not take kindly to this, and will battle the RIAA in
court this coming year.
Asked in Music
What is the number one selling single record in America?

Some variables must be considered. Do we use RIAA certification
for the count, RIAA will only certify if the record company pays
for the certification; many companies won't certify a song unless
the artist is active and is still saleable. Songs like White
Christmas by Bing Crosby (released in 1942) which was
reported in 1963 to have sold over 30 million records at
that time and are not counted.
Retroactive RIAA only certifies as far back as 1958.
Furthermore, the Guinness Book of World Records has White
Christmas holding the top spot with sales of over 50
million. RIAA's retroactive cutoff point (pre 1958) excludes
several others as well.
For the modern day song, according to RIAA certification, it
would be Candle in the Wind by Elton John with over
11 million copies sold. Keep in mind RIAA only certifies a
particular recording of a song, there are no pre or post recordings
allowed for a final combined count.
Asked in Limewire
Is LimeWire legal in the UK if you only download files and do not share them?

To start with, no matter what you do with online file sharing,
your chances of actually getting caught are '''extremely''' low
(contrary to what the record companies and the RIAA would have you
believe). To answer your question, it depends on what type of files
you mean. I'm assuming that you mean copywrited files like music.
It is, technically, illegal to download them. But nobody has ever
been caught downloading; the RIAA is looking for people who are
sharing. So, in summary, yes, downloading is safe as long as you
don't share copywrited files. But, like I said, even if you do
share, you are just joining the list of literally millions of
people sharing copywrited files at any one moment. The RIAA can
only sue, say, two or three people each month at the most. You are
more likely to win the lottery than you are to get sued by the
RIAA. -DJ Craig