RIAA Begins Catching Music Pirates Today: Don't Be Next

by , 9:00 AM EDT, June 26th, 2003

The Recording Industry Association of America announced Wednesday that it will be seeking out people who trade copyrighted music and making plans to sue thousands, starting today. The announcement, accompanied by a few dozen messages from artists, asserts that the RIAA will be 'scanning' the peer-to-peer networks in order to find out who's sharing, and collecting evidence with which to sue them. From yesterdays's announcement:

"Once we begin our evidence-gathering process, any individual computer user who continues to offer music illegally to millions of others will run the very real risk of facing legal action in the form of civil lawsuits that will cost violators thousands of dollars and potentially subject them to criminal prosecution," said (RIAA president) Sherman.

To gather evidence against P2P users who make illegal downloading possible, the RIAA will be using software that scans the public directories available to any user of a peer-to-peer network. These directories, which allow users to find the material they are looking for, list all the files that other users of the network are currently offering to distribute. When the software finds a user who is offering to distribute copyrighted music files, it downloads some of the infringing files, along with the date and time it accessed the files.

Additional information that is publicly available from these systems allows the RIAA to then identify their Internet Service Provider (ISP). The RIAA can then serve a subpoena on the ISP requesting the name and address of the individual whose account was being used to distribute copyrighted music. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), ISPs must provide copyright holders with such information when there is reason to believe copyrights are being infringed. Almost all ISPs disclose this obligation in the User's Terms of Service.

This announcement, plus further information on the process, can be found at the RIAA's Web site. Again, the investigations commence today - Thursday, June 26th.

The Mac Observer Spin:

It would have been nice to see the same level of enthusiasm for 'evidence-gathering' when the labels were found to be engaging in price-fixing.

We've often commented on the behaviour of the RIAA and its zealous pursuit of the dreaded music pirate. We've also often asserted that music piracy is a problem, and that stealing is wrong. What we've also pointed out, and applauded when others have done so, is the idea that the industry and the consumer need to meet somewhere in the middle.

The RIAA helpfully lists a bunch of legitimate music services, including Apple's iTunes Music Store and MP3.com. That's all very well, but it really isn't doing enough to provide a practical alternative to the always-on, broad catalog that people can access in peer-to-peer sharing networks. This upcoming rash of litigation isn't going to help matters much; chances are that all it will do is further alienate the customers and undermine the industry's cause. It's a pity, because online music purchasing is finally making the much-needed steps towards becoming a viable, customer-friendly experience.

RIAA: Recording Industry To Begin Collecting Evidence And Preparing Lawsuits