[Infowarrior] - RIAA v. The People: Five Years Later

[Richard Forno]

RIAA v. The People: Five Years Later
September, 2008
Related Issues: File Sharing

On September 8, 2003, the recording industry sued 261 American music  
fans for sharing songs on peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks,  
kicking off an unprecedented legal campaign against the people that  
should be the recording industry’s best customers: music fans.1 Five  
years later, the recording industry has filed, settled, or threatened  
legal actions against at least 30,000 individuals.2 These individuals  
have included children, grandparents, unemployed single mothers,  
college professors—a random selection from the millions of Americans  
who have used P2P networks. And there’s no end in sight; new lawsuits  
are filed monthly, and now they are supplemented by a flood of "pre- 
litigation" settlement letters designed to extract settlements without  
any need to enter a courtroom.3

But suing music fans has proven to be an ineffective response to  
unauthorized P2P file-sharing. Downloading from P2P networks is more  
popular than ever, despite the widespread public awareness of lawsuits. 
4 And the lawsuit campaign has not resulted in any royalties to  
artists. One thing has become clear: suing music fans is no answer to  
the P2P dilemma.

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http://www.eff.org/wp/riaa-v-people-years-later