Due to recent events that I have witnessed with people near me, I have come to the conclusion that the RIAA and MPAA are nothing more than terrorist organizations that attempt to instill fear into those which do not see eye to eye with them. Since I will be using the terms RIAA and MPAA as a group, and I am lazy, I do not want to keep referring to them as separate, but for the rest of this work, they will be referred to as the "duo".

Dictionary.com defines terrorism as "the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes." From what I've seen of the duo, this fits them perfectly. When they think that you are stealing intellectual property, (most of the music and movies that are downloaded today are completely devoid of any intellectual characteristics anyway, thus making 'intellectual property' a very small field to begin with) they let you know by contacting your ISP because they don't know who you are. Your ISP, who doesn't want any trouble with the big bad wolves, will then notify you that you have been sought out, and that the duo is so far up your ass that they would stand up for you when you sit down. This first notification is the most scary part of the whole ordeal. It will consume your soul to think that you are going to have to pay more money than you could possibly make in your lifetime just because you wanted to hear Britney Spears' latest single. This feeling of fear is exactly what they want you to feel. Once you get that letter, your downloading habits will change from that moment on. You won't dare download a torrent or open Kazaa again without thinking of who is on the other computers you are connected to.

Some people that get contacted because of downloading never download another illegal thing again. They stick to listening to streaming radio and watching movie trailers from IMDB and moviefone for their multimedia entertainment. I don't blame those people. Being on the edge of bankruptcy when still a teenager can be a pretty tough situation. Nevertheless, in these cases, the duo have essentially won. They have scared you into playing by their rules, and they didn't even have to twist your arm. This is the definition of terrorism. Another way that the duo spreads is mouth to mouth. If they sue someone, they put it up all over the place so that everyone will know who just got busted. This instills fear into many more people than just the ones that have been targeted. Those people have never even had to face the duo, and yet they are deathly afraid of them. People won't even rip CD's that they have legally purchased in stores anymore, for they could be contributing to the bankruptcy of every single musical artist in the world today.

Just like any terrorist attack, there are certainly casualties that had no need to be involved. One example is the mother that never downloaded a thing on her computer, and was still sued by the duo. Luckily for her, she won her battle and the terror subsided. This has been the story for a few lucky people, but not all of them. Most people who are contacted are never taken to court, but are just warned. This warning spreads through their friends and neighbors, and the whole social network in which the individual is involved. The receiver of the letter will tell their friends that the duo is watching them and that they should stop downloading too. This helps to spread the terror that emanates from the duo.

This duo needs to stop bothering with the little punks that upset them, and keep doing whatever it was they did before the internet was invented. Nobody even knew that it was possible to download movies before the duo started their uprising, and when they found out, they thought it was cool to be doing bad things. So people stopped doing their drugs and drinking and driving, and sat down on their computers and committed real crimes. If they were to take the spotlight off of the whole issue, people would stop trying to be "bad" and start going back to the streets to commit crimes, where a real law enforcement organization can take care of them.

To sum it up:

duo = RIAA and MPAA
RIAA and MPAA = instill fear into the average joe
instilling fear = terrorism
advocate of terrorism = terrorist
terrorists = RIAA and MPAA