The RIAA abandons personal lawsuits

[CoffeeShark]

You may know by now my extreme dislike of the RIAA and their Gestapo, judge-buying tactics. While I buy all my music (now using a Zune Pass), I would download music for free just to annoy them.

Recently, the RIAA has decided to abandon personal lawsuits (more on that later) and go after ISPs to cancel their customer's accounts if sharing is detected. (what kind of file-sharing? just music? movies? data?)

Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits - WSJ.com

Never mind about the legality of threatening the ISPs over the conduct of their customers (this is like suing the Water Company for having their product used for waterboarding), the real issue is WHY the RIAA isn't suing people any more.

It's because they're losing.

Law professors and students are now challenging the RIAA with arguments that threaten the legality of the RIAA lawsuits, and judges are starting to se the light. Suing people without knowing facts, open routers shared between neighbors, suing old ladies that don't have computers - all problems for the RIAA.

If they start actually losing lawsuits, the RIAA will become irrelevant. So they're trying a different route by going through the ISPs. Your ISPs. And they're not going to tell you which ones they're working with.

So once again, all together now: Fuck the RIAA.

[UI]

yeah, and one can only hope that all of those sued previously will jump on a class action to try and get all their money back.

[Craig]

About time they figured it out. I also read somewhere recently that this was going on because there was a landmark case where the RIAA got pwned which was going to become the precedent for all subsequent cases in such matters. They essentially lost their appeal and the case went into the history books as 'law'.

[SonicSpeed]

I don't like the RIAA's idea to go after ISP's to cancel peoples accounts if they are downloading stuff. What if I'm downloading free music (i.e. OCRemix stuff), or live concerts that haven't been recorded to sell (like the Internet Music Archive)?

[CoffeeShark]

That's the point - what's the criteria for file sharing? What if I upload a music file that I composed? What if I just zipped up an album and uploaded it that way, would it get caught? What if I made a movie and shared it?

Obviously most file-sharing is illegal music, but the first case that comes up where someone gets their account deleted due to an innocent upload will kill that whole deal.

I'm still confused as to how the RIAA has the legal right to snoop into your computer files. I think they bought that right from the Supreme Court.

[DJ_Wheels]

I think they'll probably be finding file sharers the same way they do now. They can absolutely link an IP to an ISP whereas it is more difficult to link an IP to a specific person (open access points, etc.). My guess is that they just want to put more pressure on ISPs to take action against their customers for illegal file sharing.

[No-Fear]

F*** the RIAA lol I agree with you cofee, how do they know what you're uploaded is legally legit if i should say. I wish my ISP would cancel my account for an innocent upload. My ISP corporate offices is 5 miles from my house and I know which building to cause the HaVoc in !

[Teck]

They have no right to snoop like this...

Anyways, Its tempting to startup a small file sharing network that encrypts everything end to end and wraps a nice software VPN around it. Make it impossible for anyone other than the two peers to be able to tell what the file is.

[Tulkas]

Originally Posted by Teck

They have no right to snoop like this...

Anyways, Its tempting to startup a small file sharing network that encrypts everything end to end and wraps a nice software VPN around it. Make it impossible for anyone other than the two peers to be able to tell what the file is.

that already exists though...


also, what affect does the internet czar have on this

[CoffeeShark]

10 bucks says the Internet Czar has never heard of any file-sharing except movies and music and PirateBay.