RIAA Ceases Its Legal Barrage

First reported in the Wall Street Journal, the Recording Industry Association of America is changing strategies after five years of pursing legal action against more than 35,000 people one-by-one. Henceforth, the RIAA will not sue individual music sharers for copyright infringement. Now, the RIAA has partnered with major Internet-service providers to curb illegal file sharing.

Under new agreements with ISPs, the RIAA will detect people sharing music illegally online and send an e-mail to the ISP that implicates the individual with piracy. The ISP can then either forward the RIAA notice to its consumer or issue its own warning. If the person does not stop sharing music illegally, the ISP may send several more warnings, with the ability to slow the user’s Internet connection speed. If all the warnings and depressed speeds do not stop the file sharing, the ISP can cut the user’s Internet altogether.

Under this new system, the RIAA would not require the ISP to reveal the true identities of illegal file sharers. The RIAA will avoid millions of dollars wasted in legal paperwork, and it can target more pirates with a broader approach. Instead of determining a person’s IP address, contacting the ISP for that person’s information, and then settling out of court or suing them, the RIAA now needs to send only one e-mail to the ISP to deter pirating. Additionally, the ISP is burdened with contacting the person, so the RIAA avoids looking like the enemy.

Why did the RIAA change its manners? After all, in 2008 the legal price to download songs doubled and more universities succumbed to RIAA pressure. However, aside from its public relations disaster, the threat of litigation never actually curtailed the traffic of illegal song downloads. A release from the NPD Group, a consumer marketing research firm, says that 2008 CD sales declined 19 percent in the third quarter compared to 2007. Teenagers and young adults, in particular, stopped buying physical albums and switched to legitimate song downloads. Additionally, the volume of music shared illegally increased 23 percent during the third quarter.

In spite of this abrupt change, the RIAA will continue forward with legal action against people who have lawsuits pending.

by Ben Benson