Too good to be legal: fake news from the music industry.

• Author: Mangu-Ward, Katherine
• Position: Recording Industry Association of America's report - Brief article

THE RECORDING Industry-Association of America has a warning for music fans: If an album seems too good to be legal, it probably is.

In a "video news release" sent to television stations shortly before Christmas, the trade group warns: "Watch for compilation CDs that could only exist in the dreams of a music fan." The video, which many stations aired as though it were a normal news report, makes a number of dubious claims. It asserts, for example, that the "audio quality on pirated CDs is usually atrocious."

But the most striking aspect of the "report" is the implicit...