Music Industry Still Suing Thier Customers

Four years ago, the music industry set off a legal barrage, and public relations nightmare, when it sued 261 music file-swappers.^[1] This is a move that has reshaped the peer-to-peer, file-sharing world and pushed more invention in pirating technologies.^[2]

The legal storm commenced September 8, 2003 when members of the Recording Industry Association of America started the litagtion, and they have followed with some 20,000 similar lawsuits, legal threats and settlements, according to a report published by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.^[3]

"The lawsuits, however, are not working…..Today, downloading from P2P networks is more popular than ever, despite the widespread public awareness of lawsuits…[the report's conclusion was that] suing music fans is no answer to the P2P dilemma," according to the report by the California privacy group.^[4]

Napster was shuttered. But alternatives like Aimster and AudioGalaxy filled the vacuum. They too, were supplanted by Kazaa and Morpheus, which were overshadowed by eDonkey and Bit Torrent.^[5]

The report goes on to detail several stages of the industry's litigation tactics.^[6]
At the outset, the RIAA issued 1,500 subpoenas to internet service providers nationwide, a prelude to its first 261 targets; but they evolved into an online business, the RIAA has created a web site for infringers to pay fines with credit cards.^[7]

The RIAA then issued 204 threat letters, a majority of the targets settled for an average $3,000.^[8] After the legal landscaped changed, a later phase of the litigation began in 2004. More than 500 so-called "John Doe" lawsuits were filed targeting unidentified uploaders.^[9] The courts issued subpoenas to the ISP's who turned over the users' identities.^[10]

To speed up settlements, the RIAA set up a web site, where "those receiving pre-litigation letters can simply settle their cases by paying the settlement with a credit card, without any aspect of the case ever entering the legal system," according to EFF's report.^[11]

This is however not only a civil problem, there remains a massive amount of counterfeiting in the entertainment industry.

Willful copyright infringement
17 U.S.C. § 506(a)(1) In general states that any person who willfully infringes a copyright shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, if the infringement was committed A) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain;B) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180–day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000; or C) by the distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution, by making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if such person knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial distribution.^[12]Forfeiture and Destruction.— When any person is convicted of any violation of subsection (a), the court in its judgment of conviction shall, in addition to the penalty therein prescribed, order the forfeiture and destruction or other disposition of all infringing copies or phonorecords and all implements, devices, or equipment used in the manufacture of such infringing copies or phonorecords.^[13]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has talked about counterfeiting in this blog previously, here.

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^[1] David Kravets, Happy Anniversary Pirates: 20,000 Copyright Lawsuits and Counting, Wired Online, August 29, 2007, available at http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/08/happy-anniversa.html (last visited January 28, 2008).
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.
^[10] Id.
^[11] Id.
^[12] 17 U.S.C. § 506(a)(1)(2007).
^[13] Id. at 506(b).