RIAA sends letters to 204 individuals saying they will be sued unless they settle

18 Oct 03 00:27 by Seán Byrne in category Uncategorized To news archive

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The Recording Industry Association of America has sent letters to 204 individuals saying that they are in line to be sued for copyright infringement. Unlike the last
time where the RIAA had issued lawsuits against 261 individuals, this time they have sent out warnings and if the RIAA receive no word back within a period of 10 days, they will be sued. This is to give any individuals that were miss targeted a chance to prove their innocence and others a chance to make a settlement rather than facing a lawsuit in court.

The letter states what the user has done wrong, the minimum damages of $ 750 they would be subject to for each infringed copyright recording and warns them not to destroy any evidence such as any MP3 files stored on the computers that may relate to the lawsuits.

In the RIAA’s first round of individual lawsuits more than 50 people have agreed to settlements. The RIAA have said that from this point on, they will start rolling out lawsuits on a weekly bases rather than just targeting a large group now and again as they have done so far.

src="http://www.cdfreaks.com/contentimages/newsimages/1031632297" align=right border=0
>The Recording Industry Association of America has begun preparing a second round of file-swapping lawsuits, notifying 204 individuals that they are in line to be sued for copyright infringement.

Unlike with the previous wave of suits, the record labels’ trade association is giving the lawsuit targets warning this time around, offering them a chance to settle before the suits are filed. The change in tactics comes after considerable criticism from federal lawmakers and others concerning the group’s first batch of court actions against 261 individuals last month.

“We take the concerns expressed by policy makers and others very seriously,” RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a statement. “In light of the comments we have heard, we want to go the extra mile and offer illegal file sharers an additional chance to work this out short of legal action.”

The advance notification preceding this second wave of suits marks only a small concession to critics of the RIAA actions, which have been the most controversial tactics taken by copyright holders in years of fighting piracy online.

The first round of suits, launched early in September, targeted 261 individuals whom the RIAA said had been identified as the most “egregious” file swappers, often offering more than 1,000 songs for download over peer-to-peer services such as Kazaa and Morpheus.

But as the identities of those individuals hit the press, criticism arose. The case of a 12-year-old girl living in New York public housing quickly became emblematic of what critics called the RIAA’s excessive enforcement action. A 60-something Boston woman, accused of offering hardcore rap songs for download through the Kazaa service, was dropped from the lawsuit lists after it emerged she actually used a Macintosh computer, which did not support Kazaa.

A Los Angeles area man is also challenging his lawsuit, saying that the RIAA’s suit identifies him as using an Internet address that was not his, and that he can prove it.

The RIAA is really asking for trouble now. It does not take much for individuals begin boycotting the RIAA by simply refusing to purchase any CDs, pass this on to friends and relatives and get them to pass this on. Also, their tactics are basically asking P2P software developers to make more secure file sharing services and applications such as proxy based systems were IP tracing cannot be as easily done.

It will also be interesting to see if there are any more ‘miss-targets’ this time round. For example, it does not take much time for someone to quickly ditch their PC equipment and put in a 2nd hand used Mac in place to make it appear that they never had a PC.

Source: CNET News

30 Comments

Crabbyappleton: Posts: 5757; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 02:33

Damn I hope Sen Coleman puts a stop to this freaking invasion of privacy and monetary public floggings. This is a totally twisted interpetation of the copyright act. This was intended for mass producing pirates selling stuff on the black market. IMHO. :r

joex444: Posts: 72; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 02:51

That's not just your opinion, it's exactly what the law was intended to do. It's meant to stop the black markets that you see on the Russian streets, so that doesn't happen in the US. It's not meant to do this utter madness. Does the RIAA realize that a lot of their sales loss could be do from their pursuit of Napster way back when? I know for sure I haven't bought a CD since then, and neither has my family, or most of my friends (just a few of the unenlightened ones bought a few CDs)....

aviationwiz: Posts: 179; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 03:21

Quote:

Damn I hope Sen Coleman puts a stop to this freaking invasion of privacy and monetary public floggings.

He is not a very good senator, just fyi.

RaWShadow: Posts: 222; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 03:35

The RIAA must have download the music to see if it is really a real copy and not just a file with a songs name. If the RIAA are downloading it then they must be breaking copyright laws also?

chsbiking: Posts: 543; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 03:59

Cool now they get a chance to prove they're innocent. Wait a minute, I though it was the other way around. We're suppose to assume they're innocent until the RIAA proves otherwise aren't we?

jab1981: Posts: 187; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 04:07

What's worse about the issue of being guilty until proven innocent is that it's simply a way for the RIAA to give up responsibility for it's over zealous, sue happy lawyers. Now instead of taking the rap for suing senior citizens and school children... they'll simple say the accused should've proven they were innocent. In a sense making the accused do all the leg work FOR the RIAA. Now they expect the accused to sort it all out for them... Nice guys. Real nice.

Pirate80: Posts: 185; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 05:25

Dear RIAA, You assholes don't get it do you? How does suing consumers make them want to buy your CDs? Shooting yourselves in the foot aren't you, but too blind to see that. Reminds me of McCarthyism and the Red Scare with your list of "offenders". Well go ahead and dig yourself into a deeper hole because that'll be your grave :d

dj-python: Posts: 1; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 05:43

Hey peops.. I agree with Pirate80 they are shooting themselves in the foot i mean they are so out of touch with the rest of existence its not funny.. I mean come on they are charging outrageous prices for cds and the RIAA.. seems like the same sh*t all the time, much like the music they are constantly regurgitating. Ive been djing in clubs and pubs for years now and it is quiet literally the same SH*T over and over.. Believe it or not i still think stealing music is wrong yet im still downloading it and dont get me wrong some songs i would buy but like as if why bother when there rip off prices.. I think P2P is the greatest thing ever and specially for new artists and styles of music i mean why should a sole body decide for everyone whats best.. P2P = Free Speech (& Free Music)

If the RIAA cant embrace technology then im quiet confident they will get left behind in the dust i mean how long is RND for little 1-year olds going to be able to fill a dancefloor not long im quite sure of it..

nite0859: Posts: 43; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 07:46

If you want to listen to music, then just watch Fuse, Mtv (and flavors), Vh1 (and flavors), or listen to the radio. It's apparent that the great majority of music these days is just crap. Does anyone know what's popular right now? I know I don't. I listen to the radio when I work, and I watch Uranium and the like on Fuse. Other than that, I have an aging CD collection. I purchased music that moved me once upon a time, and now, today's music moves me to the toilet to take a dump. Don't expect people to pay for shit when everyone produces it for free on the can. Don't get me wrong, there are a few good songs -- mostly one hit wonders. Bah... the RIAA is sueing people in order to make up for crappy sales --- crappy sales due to crappy music.

Denis Drew: Posts: 3; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 07:55

May I repeat?: A single individual allowing another single individual to upload a copywrited file from his computer -- in a personal transaction -- might be more legally culpable than a Kazaa freak who allows thousands of uploads from his collection -- on a file swapping network shared by tens of millions -- because if other sharers did not get upload files from him they would acquire the very same files from someone else. File swappers are all guilty together or nobody is guilty individually. On the average it is a mathmatical necessity that all sharers allow as many uploads as they take downloads. As for damages caused by free downloads: Real One's Rhapsody service will sell just about any song you can name for 80 cents, so, assuming every single download costs a single sale, damages to the artists of a 1000 might not add up to the costs fo a dinner out. Loss of profit to recording companies for what they might have gained were the same songs were bought over a legit service might be limited to a few cents a tune. Congress did not have in mind individual song swappers when it wrote those humongus fines into law. Congress had something 100 times worse in mind: profit making pirates. Witness that no individual has ever been prosecuted for copying a friends cassette tapes. File sharing networks are 10 times more damaging than individual sharers to copyright owners -- but 10 times less damaging than professional pirates were they free to purloin. But though all network participants are guilty together -- no damage may be personally ascribed to any one of the nearly 20 million individuals who once participated in Kazaa alone. Clearly, network sharing does not really fit under the conceptions of current law. Denis Drew San Francisco ddrew4u@aol.com

Denis Drew: Posts: 3; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 08:09

May I add?: Most celebrity artists of this generation -- like today's CEOs and ballplayers -- earn 20 times what their predecessors got 20 years ago -- because the U.S. has become a unionless country. It works like this: if you squeeze a toothpaste tube the stuff doesn't pile up in the middle -- where the tube walls push back with equal pressure -- it pours out the top. Ergo: the unorganized who get squeezed in the labor market cannot squeeze back. But the business people who squeeze them get squeezed equally hard in turn by competition. Our money, thus, all pumps up to the folks -- mostly celebrities -- who squeeze the market without being squeezed back by equal competitors. (0ur own fault for not unionizing heavily like Europe -- I don't blame anybody else -- we can mandate unions by 51% vote in Congress, like German did after World War II when we made them democratize.) The point here being that we love Madonna but what do we care whether she makes $45 million a year or $25 million. She should probably be making about $5 million -- probably what she would have got in the "old days". So sharing files is just a tiny, tiny way of equalizing the odds that feeds too much our money to the big cry babies in the first place. Denis Drew San Francisco ddrew4u@aol.com

Lord KiRon: Posts: 257; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 13:31

Looks like RIAA gets stupied with every passing day ! If I were to get such letter I would imideatly delete all the content in question (there are some good programs that wipe HDs without posibility to restore and CDs can sit at my freands for the time being

) Then I would write a letter to RIAA saying that they are wrong and I am not sharing anything illigal as the metter of fact I am not using P2P software at all. If they continue with the sue it then their responsibility to prove that I am shared this files , let them try to convince the judge that their P2P searching technics are mever miss (especially after this case with MAC user 66years old women

Crabbyappleton: Posts: 5757; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 14:36

Lol, I just got spammed by Steve Jobs and his cronies to join iTunes. How the hell did they get my hotmail address? "The iTunes Music Store puts hundreds of thousands of songs at your fingertips. You'll find your favorite artists, including exclusives from Coldplay, Yo-Yo Ma, and the Rolling Stones, and a large selection of indie music. You can download songs for just 99¢ each and blablabla." Too bad I can't share free music on one free network yet business can use another free network to spam for profit and not be told to stop. Yo Yo Ma my *ss! :c
[edited by Crabbyappleton on 18.10.2003 17:03]

noonie: Posts: 7; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 14:52

RIAA rules. long live america.

chrisi: Posts: 127; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 19:19

what is your defintion of privacy? not to be sued for stealing something?? i download myself, but i confess to myself it's not a sacred thing lol - don't wonder or say anything. i just think you all suck with the opinion that they are the criminals, and all you do is to celebrate that you can't be traced by the RIAA and won't get sued or woteva. masturbate if this gives you satisfaction, but don't do it like that. the next ten posts about the RIAA will have the same reactions always the same... RIAA are illegal, they're the criminals, where's the privacy, PLZ STOP THAT!! i AM BORED!! ps: insult me, it's your rite, because i got my opinion. but better shut up, start kazaa and download

chrisi: Posts: 127; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 19:25

forgot to mention the following headline, few days ago "Universal Music slashes 1,350 jobs as result of music sales slump" erm??? who is the downloading affecting?? gotta think.... omg! i think the ppl working there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!! no problem, as long as jackson doesn't get another 10000000 for his next album.... soz, g2g, w a n ch o r i n g since the riaa can't trace me omg yea!

Seán: Posts: 6944; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 19:28

I'm fairly sure the RIAA are making good use of the option "Find More From Same -> User" (right-click option on a search result). You can stop others from viewing a list of your shared files in Kazaa (lLte) by clicking 'Options' and select 'More Options...'. In the options list, tick the box beside "Prevent other users from getting a list of all your shared files.". This should help for a while...

intercept: Posts: 532; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 20:23

Its a very sad story, another article being posted about the RIAA over and over again. We know the score, its plain and simple filesharing of pirated material is considered illegal and you pay the price:S Now if you wrote some of your own music and shared that, then RIAA couldn't do anything at all, infact you could sue them for infringment of your privacy rights as an individual.:g If a similar thing happened in the UK then they cannot place 90% of the population in prison, for they are overcrowded already :B At the end of the day noone wants to go out and spend £15 on an album, play it, find 3 tracks they like. They will put it on their PC and then the cd is left on a shelf gathering dust for the rest of eternity.

You might question well if it has only 3 songs you like why buy it? Answer= Not everyone is clued up on the current top 20 songs in the charts etc. One last final thing to add, look at how many cd compilations contain the tracks? Now this is the Recording Industry being greedy! Maybe the RIAA should stop and think about this.

Tackle the major drug problems and crime etc. This is petty compared to them.:d Intercept.....:S
[edited by intercept on 18.10.2003 20:26]

Crabbyappleton: Posts: 5757; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 20:32

Hi chrisi! Is the downloading causing people to lose jobs, or is the stuff out there not worth buying? The statistics we see show downloading has no effect whatsoever, other studies show file sharers buy a lot of music. What they want is to tap into a free distribution service for lossy products and start bleeding the public for profit. Hence a lopsided fines- fear campaign. Otherwise they can't get control. Now they are warning us not to delete files from our own machines! This is a bunch of record labels for crying out loud, acting like it's a national security issue or something. Even then the FBI has to get a judge to peer into your computer, but not the RIAA they got a fast track that short circuits that system and they are abusing it. We shouldn't just lay down and let it happen. Nobody will insult you we need your input!

[edited by Crabbyappleton on 18.10.2003 20:45]

chrisi: Posts: 127; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 21:00

hi Crabbyappleton your opinion is very rite and i think it's rite wot you say. i am careful with wot i say but maybe i ain't been in last two... the price of 150 000 is by far toooooo much, you are rite. and i also won't tolerate or h8 the imagination of the riaa lookin through the files and directories on my hard disk... on the other hand, if the music is so bad, than why are so many songs downloaded??? if you wouldn't buy them, are they worth to be downloaded?? that's my point... you are rite that riaa goes stupid ways, but wot would you do if everyone would take away all the things for instance that your company produces without paying for it... you wouldn't like to work for hours and maybe even years and in the end the people like it (gr8!) but you don't get any financial reward for that... suggest sth better than you can really criticize the others... good arguments are always welcome, but arguing without a real reason is pretty much the worst thing one can do...:B well, cheers and forgimme my tone from earlier

Crabbyappleton: Posts: 5757; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 21:12

Hi chrisi, no problemo, it is fun and important to discuss these issues as we are watching things change before our eyes. I hear you and agree with your logic as to folks getting paid for what they do.
[edited by Crabbyappleton on 18.10.2003 21:18]

chrisi: Posts: 127; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 21:29

yea, i think thats what the web basically about - sharing opinions with the freedom to say wot one wants... well then, lookin foward to more discussions

cheers and regards chrisi

EFloUVA: Posts: 265; Posted on: 18 Oct 03 21:50

Quote:

RaWShadow: If the RIAA are downloading it then they must be breaking copyright laws also?

supposedly RIAA owns to copyrights to the songs they are suing over, so technically, theyre not breaking any copyrights. however, is there is problem with thr RIAA owning the copyrights to several hundred artists' songs? thats what i thought. :r

yoshix: Posts: 72; Posted on: 19 Oct 03 00:32

Someone should go into the RIAA office and spread poo all over their office. That way they can smell and live on their own crap.

kamikazee: Posts: 1154; Posted on: 19 Oct 03 07:25

Quote: supposedly RIAA owns to copyrights to the songs they are suing over, --------------------------------------------------- Ummm. this is a big misconception, the RIAA does not own any copyrights they represent the music labels who do own the copyrights, just because you make it square with the RIAA doesn't mean the record labels can't come for you after the RIAA is done. Look evidently the music is worth buying otherwise it wouldn't be downloaded, if you download it then you have an interest in it and should buy it. I'm not for the RIAA but I believe the artist has the right to be payed for his/her work now matter how bad it sucks.

Sherrif: Posts: 851; Posted on: 19 Oct 03 08:24

Hey Dennis Drew...TWO of whatever your having thanks....then I think I will be primed enough to squeeze madonnas toothpaste...............:X

Sherrif: Posts: 851; Posted on: 19 Oct 03 08:29

now seriously folks...I guess the concensus of opinion is that "artistes" have a right to monetary gain from their labour....they DON'T have a right to ask top dollar for CD's full of their drunken hallucinatory burblings or CD's that are 99 % repeats.................:X

tray_acct: Posts: 1; Posted on: 20 Oct 03 15:49

I mean what do you expect when you can buy a CD burner for $59 CDN?? They should be suing those CD and DVD burner providers for making it so accessible in the first place. Stupid RIAA!

Cubeman42: Posts: 86; Posted on: 20 Oct 03 18:09

Not to get off topic here.... but Unionless is a good thing. When was the last time you looked at car prices? Unions can be good but most times they end up costing us all more money.

fatbaby: Posts: 94; Posted on: 26 May 09 19:38

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RIAA sends letters to 204 individuals saying they will be sued unless they settle

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