In a press statement, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced that is beginning to gather evidence and prepare lawsuits against individual computer users who are "illegally offering to 'share' substantial amounts of copyrighted music over peer-to-peer networks." Beginning on 26-June-2003, RIAA will use software to scan the public directories available to any user of a peer-to-peer network. When copyrighted music files are available, the RIAA software will download some of the infringing files, along with the date and time it accessed the files. The RIAA then plans serve a subpoena on the ISP requesting the name and address of the individual it has identified. The RIAA said it expects to use the data it collects as the basis for filing what could ultimately be thousands of lawsuits charging individual peer-to-peer music distributors with copyright infringement. The RIAA noted that the major music companies have made vast catalogues of music available to dozens of legitimate downloading services over the past year.
http://www.riaa.com
- The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) recently won its legal case forcing Verizon Communications to disclose the identity of a subscriber whom it believed was in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
