By Ashlee Vance in San Francisco
Posted: 25/06/2003 at 21:10 GMT
The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has issued the biggest threat to date against online file-traders, saying it will sue thousands of individuals into submission.
Starting Thursday, pigopolist grunts will begin combing P2P networks in search of industrious file traders. Once the RIAA has targeted a large store of copyrighted files, it will serve a subpoena on the user's ISP, grab his/her name and address, and fire off a lawsuit.
"The RIAA expects to use the data it collects as the basis for filing what could ultimately be thousands of lawsuits charging individual peer-to-peer music distributors with copyright infringement," the RIAA said in a statement. "The first round of suits could take place as early as mid-August."
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A pair of recent court rulings opened up this means of attack on file-traders. First, a Los Angeles judge in April said P2P service operators could not be held responsible for their users' actions. This decision blocked the RIAA from shutting down large chunks of the P2P community in one go - think Napster - and pushed them toward nailing individuals.
More recently, the RIAA won another decision over Verizon, which gave it permission to see the name and address of the ISP's customers.
Users face civil lawsuits, thousands of dollars in fines and even criminal prosecution. At least the legal action is a more civilized way of conducting business. Sending out fake files and having musicians swear at users are puerile forms of protest.
For now, file traders should swap with caution. The RIAA plans to inject network scanning software out into the vast P2P world and track what files users are looking for and what they trade. If the RIAA bot spots an infringing song, it marks the date and time the file is accessed.
It's unfortunate the government did not have such sophisticated tools when it was examining the music labels' pricing fixing scheme that pushed CD prices higher throughout the 1990s. Maybe then, the labels would been hit with something harder than a slap on the wrist.
Time, perhaps, for a good old-fashioned consumer boycott? ®
url]http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31434.html[/url]
little kid who talks to hear his own voice
the riaa is just trying to find a way to pay for all the shit they have ben doing lately. all these fakes, people they employ to find users, etc... they need money.
and no matter how many times it has been said, it's still good:
just share less files. still share, but only 50-100 files. even i own that many files on old cd's. just burn the stuff and then delete from the hard drive. then when they come to you, just say it wasn't you, and countersue for whatever you can (false accusation? i dunno, haven't watched judge judy in a long time)
hell, even if they browse through your files, they can't prove you are sharing copyrighted materials, so they hafta upload it. then they are dl'ing copyrighted materials... i thought that was illegal ;)
nsap @ filesharingtalk.com
Okay, I'm forced to wonder. How many people will really get caught with the goods?
Everyone suspects that Kazaa is the dangerous place to be and I have my doubts. If they are using a bot to look for "infringing songs" there isn't as big of a threat using Kazaa Lite++. You can click the option to keep others from browsing your files, so the bot would literally get 1 song at a time. Unless your sharing every song from the latest hurting "American Idol" winner's album, not every song will be searched out. I can't see them trying to bully 1000's of people over 2 or 3 songs that they turn up.
Just my opinion.
The guy in my avatar agrees with me.
cheapprick - Is it Lars Ulrich in your avatar ?
Yeah, he's come full circle now. "Little Lars" loves the file sharing, and well, being spanked with barb wire.
edit: It's actually a picture from "The Charlie Rose Show", in which Lars was debating the "evil" of Napster vs one of the guys from Public Enemy. You can watch the entire segment on real player.
here
The pic features Lars waving goodbye to unfaithful fans.
I must say that he's looking weird on this picture. I guess that he's saying something like: "Let's see what's going on with post-Napster file-sharing"
Do you know which networks are being watched? I'm mostly using WinMX now, and I haven't heard much complaining about RIAA letters from that program.
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you do criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.
Actually, they are all being watched. There is no absolute safety.
Very mature. Well, your time is up. Is that someone knocking at your door?Originally posted by isus
buy some drugs! :: become a mobster! :: steal music!!!;)
CACA
It's going to be interesting to see the type of people the RIAA is going to round up.
I can see the headlines now:
"Catholic Priest is arrested for file sharing"
"16 year-old babysitter is taken into custody for using Kazaa"
"Single mother of two is busted for sharing Michael Bolton MP3s files"
how about?
I agree lets do that
-NEVER ARGUE WITH A FOOL; HE WILL SOON BEAT YOU WITH EXPERIENCE
-EAT AND SLEEP. YOU MIGHT THINK THAT'S A GIVEN BUT NO-IT'S NOT. EAT AND SLEEP. IDIOT.
If anyone here is from or knows someone in the Austin, TX area a local reporter is looking to hear people's reactions about this latest RIAA threat, so if you either are afraid or are very upset talk! Be heard! Contact: [email protected]
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