Q&A: Will I be sued for music-swapping?

**sebfernando** · August 1st, 2003, 05:28 AM

Hey,

just a few answers to popular questions. i know someone posted a simliar thread to this one, but i thought his answers were not detailed enough.

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Could I be sued for swapping a few songs?

Theoretically, you could. But the RIAA says it is suing file swappers who have consistently trade large amounts.

It recently took action against a college student in Michigan who ran a network offering more than 650,000 files - the equivalent of more than 43,000 albums. They have chased other users who have again uploaded thousands of files.
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Can children be sued for uploading or downloading songs?

The RIAA says it could prosecute anyone, including children.
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Why are record companies so worried?

Global music sales are falling, with sales down by 13% in the UK alone in the first quarter of this year.

The music industry, which has suffered massive redundancies and restructuring in the last decade, says the swapping of music files over the internet is one of the major parts of music piracy. It has sued online song-swapping services like Napster and Kazaa.
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I live in the UK, but US computer users will be able to access the songs I share on file-swapping networks. Will the RIAA sue me?

No. The RIAA's UK equivalent, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), says this is a US action that is affecting only music downloaders in the US because international laws are different. The RIAA cannot take action against people outside the US.
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Is the BPI planning to sue UK users?

It has said it will not rule out suing individual users, but that it would be a "last resort". The BPI says it is currently trying to educate people - including sending out leaflets to colleges and large business - to tell people where they can download music legally.

It also says using peer-to-peer services risks downloading viruses. But if the RIAA's actions are successful, a similar system could be on the cards for the UK.
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Why is the RIAA chasing individual users?

The music industry has had mixed fortunes in its court actions against the companies that support file-swapping on the internet. Some have been successful - like the action which forced Napster to close - and some have not.

Last month a US judge ruled that two file-swapping networks, Grokster and Morpheus, were not responsible for what was traded on their systems.

However, the RIAA was successful in getting telecommunications giant Verizon to hand over details of customers who swap files. This has allowed them to begin the process of gathering evidence against individuals.
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Are other music industry groups going to take similar action?

Four countries in Europe have already taken action - Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Italy, says the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). German police impounded computer equipment in April in the town of Furth that had been used to upload up to one million files. In Italy at least 75 actions have been taken.
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Will legitimate online services ever rival the peer-to-peer sites?

The launch of the Apple system iTunes, where US users can choose from 200,000 songs at 99 cents a song has been a huge success, with more than five million songs downloaded in the first month. The system will be launched in Europe later this year. Microsoft are also in discussion with Universal, the world's biggest music group, about a similar system.

---->SebstA<----
:mellow

**jonnymnemonic** · August 1st, 2003, 05:39 AM

I guess 'success' is a relatrive term. According to RIAA statistics (650 million songs downloaded via P2P networks per month), in the time Apple has sold 6.5 million songs, another couple of BILLION songs were transferred over P2P. So, depends on you look at it. Is 6.5 million songs a lot? Sure. Is a thousand times that amount a lot? Obviously.

In other words, people are voting with their wallets. For every song paid for, hundreds more are not. Of course, were those songs not available for free, it's highly doubtful that people would have bought them.

The lesson: statistics can be made to say anything you want, that Apple is successful, or that Apple has flopped hard with 'market penetration' of 0.1 percent of digital file transfers.

And 75 percent of the population believes the other 25 percent sucks. ;)

**matt merch** · August 1st, 2003, 05:49 AM

Could I be sued for swapping a few songs?

Theoretically, you could. But the RIAA says it is suing file swappers who have consistently trade large amounts.

It recently took action against a college student in Michigan who ran a network offering more than 650,000 files - the equivalent of more than 43,000 albums. They have chased other users who have again uploaded thousands of files.
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not completely true as they have issued a writ against someone sharing only 5 songs , i would imagine you are more of a target the more you share but i guess they want to scare as many ppl as possible so they need to make an example of someone sharing only a handful its their version of shock and awe

**cheapprick** · August 1st, 2003, 07:33 AM

Last month a US judge ruled that two file-swapping networks, Grokster and Morpheus, were not responsible for what was traded on their systems.

This is fairly old. Is there a link which you got this list from?

**FutureIverson** · August 1st, 2003, 02:41 PM

mojo's is a little more updated. and then theres tghe post differential. Don't scare children. The riaa doesn't attack children you should rephrase that. suprisingly teenagers ... the ones i know share more files then a lot of peepz. although most leeches are teens. Remember they go after their parents. Don't scare children into thinking it's the Riaa vs. them... they're parents are just as involved

**Theinfamousone** · August 1st, 2003, 04:24 PM

Originally posted by jonnymnemonic
I guess 'success' is a relatrive term. According to RIAA statistics (650 million songs downloaded via P2P networks per month), in the time Apple has sold 6.5 million songs, another couple of BILLION songs were transferred over P2P. So, depends on you look at it. Is 6.5 million songs a lot? Sure. Is a thousand times that amount a lot? Obviously.

In other words, people are voting with their wallets. For every song paid for, hundreds more are not. Of course, were those songs not available for free, it's highly doubtful that people would have bought them.

The lesson: statistics can be made to say anything you want, that Apple is successful, or that Apple has flopped hard with 'market penetration' of 0.1 percent of digital file transfers.

And 75 percent of the population believes the other 25 percent sucks. ;)

If we're talking percentages, iTunes is only available to those who own Macs. That's about 3% of the market. On top of that, iTunes is only available for Mac OSX, which only about 1/3 of Mac owners have updated to. So we're talking 1% of the population has access to it (obviously not everyone owns a computer, so it's actually less than 1% of the population if we're cutting hairs) and so if 100% of the population could buy music online, I figure there'd have been about 650 million songs bought by now, which very much rivals the amount of songs (a lot of what is traded on P2P networks is videos and porn and stuff like that so if we're only talking music, so yes, they are rivals).

**langeo** · August 3rd, 2003, 05:35 PM

Q: Is the RIAA concerned only with fasttrack right now? Or is it moving to blubster/piolet and soulseek?

Q: If i use kazaa K++ to disable viewing my shared files, can i still be caught? Same question for the Mp2p network.

**cheapprick** · August 3rd, 2003, 06:14 PM

Originally posted by langeo
Q: Is the RIAA concerned only with fasttrack right now? Or is it moving to blubster/piolet and soulseek?

Q: If i use kazaa K++ to disable viewing my shared files, can i still be caught? Same question for the Mp2p network.

A: Nope it's all of them.

A: AFAIK that should reduce them to finding a single file at a time.

**langeo** · August 3rd, 2003, 06:18 PM

thanks

**tidal** · August 20th, 2003, 02:53 PM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by sebfernando
The launch of the Apple system iTunes, where US users can choose from 200,000 songs at 99 cents a song has been a huge success, with more than five million songs downloaded in the first month. The system will be launched in Europe later this year. Microsoft are also in discussion with Universal, the world's biggest music group, about a similar system.
[QUOTE]

last i checked... sales were plummeting from itunes...

i wish there was some equilibrium that could be attained but i suppose once you've tasted free you don't want to go back to paying... not sure if thats really related or not but it popped into my head :)