HomeFeatureFBI Shuts Down Sharebeast, But Who’s Really the Blame?? Ms. Bels Tuesday, September 15, 2015 Feature, Music, Music 101, The Studio The RIAA made an announcement yesterday (Sept. 14) that the file-sharing site, Sharebeast.com, was officially shut down by the Feds. Apparently, Sharebeast served as an illegal music file-sharing site where thousands of illegal songs and albums were being shared to the public for FREE. The site, along with an adjoining site called AlbumJams.com, were seized by the FBI and will probably result in a massive copyright infringement case for its owners. The RIAA Chairman & CEO Cary Sherman released this statement: “This is a huge win for the music community and legitimate music services. Sharebeast operated with flagrant disregard for the rights of artists and labels while undermining the legal marketplace. “Millions of users accessed songs from Sharebeast each month without one penny of compensation going to countless artists, songwriters, labels and others who created the music. We are grateful to the FBI and the Department of Justice for its strong stand against Sharebeast and for recognizing that these types of illicit sites wreak major damage on the music community and hinder fans’ legitimate listening options.” If this sort of thing sounds familiar, this is same thing that happened to Napster in the early 2000s. What started out as just a simple platform for people to share music with one another, quickly grew to over 20 million users. Soon the RIAA, labels, and artists came knocking on Napster’s doors looking for dollars. According to the multi-million dollar lawsuit that came after, Napster was basically a breeding ground for music thieves. Since the end of Napster’s reign in 2001, there have been many more downloading sites that has come and go. Now, it’s Sharebeast’s turn. But, is it worth the hassle for the RIAA and the FBI to shut down these illegal file-sharing sites? Should they really be going after the real culprits who sit in the studios and distribution companies? These are the people that get their hands on new music FIRST, not the file-sharing sites. So, who’s the real blame?
