I was curious about Childnet’s Young People Music and the Internet guide and decided to email [email protected] to get my own physical copy of the guide. I was very surprised to receive a return email from an RIAA employee! Not once in the guide is the RIAA mentioned, only a partner organization pro-Music.org
This guide for parents and teachers has been written by children’s charity Childnet International, with support from Pro-Music and Netfamily news.org.
The views in this guide are solely those of Childnet. Childnet is a non-profit organisation working to help make the internet a great and safe place for children. Registered as a charity in the UK (number 1080173).
Pro-Music is an international music sector education campaign about digital music. This guide is supported by Pro-Music member organisations representing musicians, performers, artists, major and independent record companies, publishers, managers and retailers across the music industry. To order copies of this leaflet e-mail: [email protected]
Here is the response I received from ProMusic via the RIAA:
No Problem. I will e-mail him.
We actually list it on our homepage:
http://www.riaa.com/toolsforparents.phpBest/
Coordinator, Communications
Recording Industry Association of America
(Personal contact information removed)
After further research it appears that the RIAA’s version of the leaflet has been up for about a year. (Thank you Internet Archive.) I would expect a little more disclosure and attribution from a charity. Childnet simply reworked older propaganda from the RIAA while removing any direct links to the less popular RIAA brand by misleading readers to believe that their support comes from ProMusic.
I hope we can lobby the charity to change the leaflet and come clean over who their partners are. It was a little jarring to request a leaflet from a charity and receive an email response from an organization that is notorious in the US for intimidation tactics, privacy violations and harassment of college students.
