During the 80's and 90's the music industry has experienced a steady growth in sales and profits. However, from the year 2000 the performance of this industry began to deteriorate. Several scientific articles, as well as record companies and organizations representing the recording industry in various parts of the world point to the virtual piracy as the cause of this poor performance. Virtual Piracy, in turn, has been made possible by the emergence of a number of innovations, arising out of the music industry, and connected to the Internet. Among these innovations we find MP3 files, that allows the dematerialization of music; Peer to peer soft wares (such as Napster, Kaaza, Gnutella, E-mule, uTorrent etc..), which allowed the music to be sent over the Internet without the need to pay for it (virtual piracy); CD and DVD burners and digital players (like iPod and MP3 players), which allowed pirated music to be played away from the computer, giving more freedom to the actors who perform virtual piracy, and lastly the broadband connections, that allow that piracy of music to be performed much faster. Actors like the major labels and organizations representing the recording industry took several steps to try to diminish or eradicate piracy virtual. Initially these actors have initiated lawsuits against those responsible for file-sharing networks, which caused several Peer to peer networks to be shut down (such as Napster, Gnutella and Kaaza). However, facing the new reality, the architecture of these networks has been modified so that those responsible for them had no control over what is distributed across the network, since these networks have become decentralized, which means that the file is transferred from one computer to another without the need of going thought any kind of central server (a computer that lists of what is being transferred and the IPs of the computers involved). Became more difficult to prosecute those responsible for the file sharing, then, organizations representing the recording industry (mainly the RIAA) initiated lawsuits against the users of these networks, which caused a temporary drop in the volume of illegal downloads, however, the illegal downloads increased again in subsequent periods. Furthermore, according to some authors (Strumpf,K; Oberholzer, F. 2004 and PEITZ, M.; WAELBROECK, P., 2003), although not all the actors who carry out illegal downloading of copyrighted songs would buy the product if piracy was not possible, users of these networks are potential consumers for the industry music. Several authors state that the music industry's battle against piracy is not a struggle to ensure the production of new songs (as claimed by the major labels and their representative organizations), but a fight to save a business model. And according to this authors a business model in decay, based in massive sale of hits.
After a decade of coexistence between the music industry, the innovations mentioned above and the virtual piracy, the music industry tries to incorporate elements of these innovations in order to benefit, for example, by using the internet as a distribution channel (which requires secure and fast internet connections) and the establishment of virtual stores. Yet the first company to successfully build an online music store was Apple, with iTunes, which offers a variety of products and a friendly user layout, and is closely related to use of the iPhone and iPod (items that became more than just music player and turned into fashion statements, and that requires the use of iTunes and only permits songs in proprietary format to be played). The latest action of the music industry (together with other entertainment industries) to try to reduce or eliminate virtual piracy came through legislative proposals in the United States: SOPA (stop online piracy act) and PIPA (protect IP act) and the international Agreement, ACTA (Anti-counterfeiting trade act). The first two have been drop by the US government  due to pressure from civil society, and the latter is still being negotiated, although it has been signed by many countries it has not yet been implemented.
This article aims to analyze the present situation by using the theory of fields. According to Bourdieu (2005b, p.23) the Field " só existe pelos agentes que se encontram nele e que deformam o espaço na sua vizinhança, conferindo-lhe uma certa estrutura.”.". [1]There are two types of actors, according to Flilgstein (2009), the incumbents and challengers. Generally, incumbents are actors who have large amounts of capital (whether financial, symbolic, technological, etc.) and use this capital to support their actions and views. Challengers are those with little influence on the field. The incumbent actors, when facing the destabilization of the field, is take actions to reestablish the status quo, for this benefits them. According to Fligstein (2009) all the actions this actors can take to ensure the status quo is reestablished are molded by the current game rules and limited by it.Thus in the field of music, the major labels and organizations that represent the industry of music are incumbents, because they have lots of both symbolic and financial capital, and are well positioned in the field, what makes their action have great impact on the field. Smaller labels and initiatives such as sites like IndieGoGo and Rock the post (which are based on crowd funding) are considered challengers. The article aims to focus on the analysis of the music industry and its support to SOPA, PIPA and ACTA's thought the point of view of the Theory of Fields. According to Fligstein (2009) pressuring the Government is one of courses of action an incumbent can take to try and reestablish the status quo. More than this, according to this author, this an expected move. Within this perspective the actions taken by major labels (such as lawsuits against responsible file sharing networks and users, to the support given by these actors to SOUP, PIPA and ACTA) are explained as the actions of incumbent actors trying to restore the status quo, undermined by virtual piracy.

[1] exists only by agents who are in it and that deform the space in its neighborhood, giving it some structure.".