(By Jay Lyman, www.NewsFactor.com) – After drawing the ire of the online file-swapping community and Internet users at large, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Web site was defaced and taken offline Wednesday. The defacement, described as “the funniest hack ever” on a forum site, resembled the normal RIAA site but featured such links as “Piracy can be beneficial to the music industry” and “Where can I find information on giant monkeys?”

After drawing the ire of the online file-swapping community and Internet users at large, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Web site was defaced and taken offline Wednesday.

The defacement, described as “the funniest hack ever” on a forum site, resembled the normal RIAA site but featured such links as “Piracy can be beneficial to the music industry” and “Where can I find information on giant monkeys?”

Fix in the Works

While the RIAA would not acknowledge that its site had been hacked or defaced, the group, which has tried to prevent Napster ( news – web sites)-like online file sharing, admitted that its site was offline.

“There’s a problem with our site that we’re fixing,” an RIAA spokesperson told NewsFactor. “It should be back up shortly.”

The spokesperson would not comment on whether the association is a favorite target of hackers or is disliked by an array of Internet users.

Defacement Cheered

However, distaste for the RIAA and its legal offensive on Internet music file-sharing services was apparent in posts to forum site Fark.com, which generally cheered the defacement and jeered at the recording industry.

Among posts at the online forum were: “Yeah! Stick it to the man!” and “That hack is like six levels deep. Someone put their time into this. Sweet.”

“There is a growing sentiment of ill will toward the RIAA, the Motion Picture Association of America and content owners in general,” Yankee Group senior analyst Mike Goodman told NewsFactor.

Goodman said that despite the RIAA’s legal contentions that free online music trading violates copyright law and constitutes piracy, the majority of consumers resent content owners’ efforts to clamp down on file sharing.

“It’s a bit more of a radical reaction,” Goodman said of the defacement. “But it underlies a much more mainstream feeling that we’re going to share our music online and you guys are infringing on that.” Goodman pointed out that the general feeling among consumers is that file sharing is an inalienable right.

Industry Cries Foul

While studies, including a recent Yankee Group report, have indicated that free online music trading will flourish until legitimate, licensed sites offer the content, ownership and portability that consumers want, the RIAA continues to blame free online music trading for declining CD sales.

Music CD sales declined 7 percent in the first half of this year, costing the industry more than US$280 million, the RIAA said this week.

In addition, an RIAA-commissioned study indicated that increased music downloading from the Internet corresponds to reduced CD purchases. The RIAA, which has leveraged copyright law against peer-to-peer site Napster, among others, has warned that it might pursue individual users of free online file trading services.

Technology Revolution

Goodman said the RIAA must take the defacement seriously but can do little about it other than increase the site’s security. He alluded to the explosion of free online music trading by saying, “Technology is causing a revolution in the way consumers consume content.”

He pointed out that content owners are trying to impede this revolution, but “it’s not a particularly consumer-friendly approach.”