LOS ANGELES — Music fans continued swapping songs over the Internet, though a bit more cautiously, following the recording industry’s threat this week to sue anyone engaged in digital piracy.
The warning appeared to have little effect on the pace of downloading over the most popular file-sharing services. But the threat drew the ire of many fans, driving speculation that it could ultimately backfire and encourage a new crop of file-sharing services capable of keeping users anonymous.
Filetopia already promises that, and another, called Blubster, will launch Monday.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which represents the major recording companies, said it would file several hundred lawsuits against individuals within eight to 10 weeks seeking financial damages of as much as $150,000 per copyright song.
In the past, the industry went after the file-sharing services themselves, succeeding in closing pioneer Napster. But newer services such as Grokster and Morpheus have managed to dodge the courts so far by decentralizing their systems and arguing that they had no control over users.
The RIAA hopes that by going after users directly, it can end the rampant piracy blamed for a three-year slump in music sales. Nonetheless, use of file-sharing services appeared virtually unchanged Friday.
Kazaa, the most popular software for file sharing, saw a significant decline in user traffic during the first 10 hours following Wednesday’s announcement by the RIAA. But traffic bounced back within 24 hours.
From Wednesday afternoon to Friday morning, the number of users signed on to the FastTrack network — the system that supports Kazaa and Grokster — fluctuated between 3.4 million and 4.4 million, according to figures reported by Kazaa.
“The numbers have been consistent-to-normal fluctuation,” said Richard Chernela, a spokesman for Kazaa parent Sharman Networks.
Grokster saw downloads increase Thursday between 5 and 10 percent, said company President Wayne Rosso.
Recording industry officials said Friday that they don’t expect their campaign to produce change overnight.
“We are committed to communicating the message that offering copyrighted music online is illegal,” said RIAA spokeswoman Amy Weiss. “It hurts artists, songwriters and everyone else who brings music to the public, and we will hold those who engage in this activity accountable.”
For now, many users of file-sharing services said they were taking some precautions, but remained undeterred.
“I don’t think that I trade in the volumes that they would be interested in,” said Alec Cumming, 24, a Los Angeles film restorer who estimates he has 200 downloaded songs on his computer. “If they really went after me, I would pretty likely stop. I’m not making any money off of it.”
Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a Washington-based advocacy group on technology and copyright issues, said the industry risks consumer backlash if it sues “every Tom, Dick and Harry with a handful of songs.“
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