The Recording Industry Association of America’s announcement on June 25 that it will start tracking down and suing users of file-sharing programs has yet to spook people, say developers of these applications.
Maybe MP3 downloaders are interpreting the recording industry’s threat — an escalation from its earlier strategy of targeting file-sharing developers — as a sort of “last call” announcement. Starting June 26, RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a news conference, the group would collect evidence against consumers illegally trading files of copyrighted music, with lawsuits to follow in a couple of months.
Or maybe consumers figure the odds of getting busted by the RIAA’s legal team are low: A recent report by research firm Yankee Group estimates that 56 million people use file-swapping software in the United States.
Either way, the number of users seems to have grown last week.
“Anytime you get media attention, you get people interested to try it out,” said Michael Weiss, chief executive of Streamcast Networks Inc., which developed Morpheus.
