The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents many record labels, media conglomerates, and distributors. They are vocal and controversial advocates of copyright enforcement and have filed numerous lawsuits on behalf of the companies they represent.

On February 20, 2009, a post on the blog TechCrunch alleged that the online music community Last.fm had shared with the RIAA a list of its users with pirated songs who stored on their computers. The story is based on statements from an anonymous source and has not been confirmed.TechCrunch: Did Last.fm Just Hand Over User Listening Data... (February 20, 2009) Last.fm, which is owned by CBS, denied the allegations on their corporate blog, and the RIAA issued its own denial to tech blog Ars Technica.Last.fm Blog: TechCrunch Are Full of S--t (February 23, 2009)Ars Technica: RIAA denies rumors that Last.fm turned over user data (February 22, 2009)

The RIAA has been a key player in the fight against music piracy, particularly on the Internet. They have filed lawsuits against file sharing services and music fans who have illegally downloaded songs through those services. The association singled out 12 cities as major areas for copyright infringement offenders including Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, and Miami.