Has What.cd Already Been Busted?

One of our users forwarded us this confusing email “from the RIAA” this morning:

From: piracy@riaa.org
Date: November 12, 2007 5:43:09 AM EST
To: ****@gmail.com
Subject: Music Piracy
Reply-To: piracy@riaa.org

Dear registered user of the site What.cd,

We have recently been investigating the activities of the users of the site http://www.what.cd/ and we have found that this site exists for the sole purpose of music piracy.

Pirating music is a criminal offence and we believe it should be obvious to you that the results outweigh the benefits – hard working artists won’t be rewarded for their work and will stop producing music, ultimately leading to a severely reduced selection of music both in the shops and for download.

The RIAA had hoped that the disabling by the police of the large illegal music site, Oink.cd, would stop a lot of people from engaging in piracy,
as they don’t want to be seen as criminals. However, this appears to not be the case, as two large new sites have sprung up in its place.

This email is the final warning to all of you who were members of Oink.cd and are current members of What.cd. If we find you to be committing any more criminal acts of piracy then we will have to press charges against you, as representatives of the major record companies of America.

Yours Faithfully,

The RIAA

For real? A hoax? Nobody can be sure, but a chilling notice indeed. Their use of the word offence as opposed to offense leads us to believe they are either english or faking it.

Update: Apparently other users have gotten them too, and the site is claiming they are a hoax.

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