RIAA Says It Has Ended P2P Litigation Spree
Andrew Albanese -- Library Journal, 01/09/2009
| Go back to the Academic Newswire for more stories |
- RIAA pulls back from targeting students
- Now is working with ISPs
- One verdict set aside
(This article first appeared in the January 8, 2009 issue of the LJ Academic Newswire.)
That sound you hear is the sound of campus IT personnel breathing a sigh of relief after the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said it has ended its controversial strategy of filing John Doe lawsuits against P2P users, notably on college and university campuses. An RIAA spokesperson said no new lawsuits have been filed since August and, except for actions targeted against large-scale illegal pirates, suits would not be filed against individual downloaders.
Instead, the RIAA intends to work with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to notify users of alleged infringement. Rather than face lawsuits, users would face the loss of their service if the activity isn’t curbed.
In all, the RIAA has filed more than 30,000 lawsuits against users, pressured thousands of college students to pay outrageous settlement demands or face the ruinous costs of defending a lawsuit. In doing so, the RIAA forced campus IT to act as hall monitors for online traffic—influencing some, such as Ohio University, to ban P2P use on its network. In November 2008, meanwhile, Tennessee passed a bill that requires private colleges and universities to monitor their networks and limit the number of unauthorized transmissions of copyrighted works.
While the RIAA claims the suits have been successful, the group’s tactics have come under increasing fire. Earlier in 2008, a $220,000 verdict against alleged downloader Jammie Thomas was set aside by a judge. In addition, a number of states have challenged the RIAA’s investigative techniques. Regardless of RIAA claims, the suits have clearly not helped revive the struggling industry—album sales dipped even further in 2008, the eighth straight year of decline. Digital sales, meanwhile, continue to rise.
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