RIAA to revive John Doe lawsuits

Not satisfied with the current approach in its war with music piracy, the Recording Industry Association of America will resume the practice of suing individual file sharers, CDFreaks has learned from a credible industry source.

Last year, the RIAA said it would stop filing new lawsuits and focus on other strategies, but the source said bad PR over a possible "three strikes and you’re out" program with Internet service providers has negated any benefits the RIAA might have gleaned from the new policy. The association has previously insisted that they were pushing for a "graduated response" program that doesn’t necessarily mean hard-and-fast terminations of Internet access, but those claims often fell upon deaf ears.

"They figured, ‘Why bother? We’re getting a bad rap anyway,’" our source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. "The old way’s just easier, and more lucrative too, I might add."

The source said the RIAA will likely seek steeper penalties than before. Where the association sought roughly $150,000 per song in the famous Jammie Thomas case, they might be seeking closer to $500,000 per song for similar cases.

Another source who is familiar with the RIAA’s operations expressed a bit of wistful nostalgia for the old days. "Back then, they could just sue whomever they wanted," the source said. "Copyright violation is a serious crime, and no one should be exempt from the law, be it the old, young or terminally ill." An RIAA spokeswoman did not confirm — or deny — the story.

Ongoing efforts to negotiate a three-strikes policy with ISPs will be abandoned, the source said. Representatives from several ISPs were not available for comment, with the exception of a Verizon spokesman, who simply said "Good," and offered no further explanation on the record.

Our source said that new lawsuits will be filed starting today.

Update: As some of you have guessed, this article was part of our annual April Fools joke, which CDFreaks has a long history of participating in. We certainly hope that the RIAA does not revert back to extorting/suing individuals and we are sorry if this article upset you. Happy April Fools day!