Missed opportunities. Alienated customers. Angry grandparents. Frightened children. If there was a single list of don’ts in developing a prosperous business plan, it would include these no-nos.

The Recording Industry Association of America has accomplished all these things in one daft move: Sending out almost 1,000 subpoenas in an effort to target individuals who illegally share music over the Internet.

To be clear, sharing music files is stealing. It is taking someone else’s work without paying for it. That’s bad and it hurts thousands of hardworking people.

The recording industry, unsuccessful in short-circuiting the software that makes file sharing possible, has turned its pack of legal hounds on the people who use their computers to trade the pirated files. And the lawyers don’t care who gets caught up in their net. The association plans to file several hundred lawsuits and penalties could reach $150,000 per illegally downloaded song, although it seems unlikely that such enormous fines would actually come to pass.

The president of the RIAA told The Associated Press that he is unconcerned with the personal circumstances of the people being targeted for legal action.

“The idea really is not to be selective, to let people know that if they’re offering a substantial number of files for others to copy, they are at risk,” Cary Sherman said. “It doesn’t matter who they are.”

Music piracy is a serious problem. But threatening granny and grandpa and indiscriminately targeting music swappers is draconian.

New technology develops quickly and often outpaces the economic models of current, successful business. Such is the case with file sharing. Instead of capitalizing on an emerging technology, the recording industry has been slow to adapt, while at the same time trying to hold back a flood of change that threatens to systematically change the way music and movies are distributed.

Purveyors of pornography were some of the first to realize the opportunities that Internet and high-speed data transfers hold for product sales and distribution. High-speed Internet presents a new world of sales opportunities for musicians and artists. Already, the band Pearl Jam has begun moving toward self-distribution of its music, relying heavily on the Internet.

The recording industry is looking for a legal solution to a market problem. Instead of spending its money and time tracking down overzealous 14-year-olds with computer music libraries, the RIAA should spend its resources improving and marketing ways for music lovers to legally use the Internet to buy music.

Models exist already. Apple’s iTunes Web site sells songs for 99 cents each. The process isn’t as simple as it could be, but it’s not impossible to figure out. And it works.

We remember when eight-track tape recorders, then cassettes, then VCRs were going to gut the entertainment industry. Despite predictions, the sky didn’t fall. The market adapted to take advantage of the new technology and co-opted it for profit.

The RIAA’s subpoenas are meant to scare offenders straight. For many, it’s working. But to effectively combat music piracy, the industry needs to develop an easy, legal alternative. People want the products artists sell. Old business models just aren’t keeping up. That falls to the industry to correct.

Copyright law is important for protecting intellectual property and safeguarding the economic incentives that drive innovation, but stop picking on kids and grandmas. That’s not the answer.
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