RIAA files legal action against cloud storage service Box.Net

Since the Recording Industry Association of America’s long-standing legal battle against LimeWire has finally been settled, the trade group has decided to shift their sites to another online file-sharing service in their quest to try to eradicate music piracy.

On Wednesday, the RIAA filed fresh legal paperwork against the business-oriented, cloud-based sharing service Box.Net.

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According to The Hollywood Reporter, the RIAA has reason to suspect that some Box.Net users have begun using the service not only to share, manage and access their business content, but to share their personal music folders as well. In light of that realization, RIAA Vice President of Online Piracy Mark McDevitt filed papers in the California federal court seeking to subpoena information from the cloud-storage company.

The question now is whether the RIAA has interest in carrying out legal action against Box.Net or pursuing the individual users of the service if it finds that infringing activity has indeed been taking place. As THR notes, “the RIAA sued some 30,000 individual users of file-sharing platforms a few years ago, but then ended the mass litigation campaign amid fanfare that it had realized a PR error.”

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It’s no surprise, of course, that RIAA officials have begun taking action against a cloud storage startup. The trade group has become increasingly uneasy, especially with the recent launches of Amazon Cloud Player and Google Music Beta, both consumer-oriented cloud services specifically designed to store media files and have the ability to access them from any device. National Music Publishers Association President stated that it was “extremely troubling” that Amazon would launch their cloud player without first discussing licensing issues with the labels, while Marvin L. Berenson, Senior Vice President of music label BMI publicly penned his concerns immediately following the launch of Music Beta.

But how far will the music labels take their legal quest to collect any missed royalties due to the emergence of “the cloud”? If their 10-year battle against LimeWire is any indication, this is only the beginning.

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