Re: TechTV | Stop or We Sue, RIAA Says

Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 12:43:53 GMT
Newsgroups: calgary.general
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TechTV | Stop or We Sue, RIAA SaysGlad that i live in canada, and not the
united states where the recording industry association of AMERICA is. ;-)
"Trevor Somers" <email-address-deleted> wrote in message
news:email-address-deleted...
READ THIS ARTICLE if you are into file sharing...
http://www.techtv.com/news/news/story/0,24195,3463091,00.html
--
"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try." Beverly Sills
Thank you,
Trevor Somers Search: Join TechTV Member Services Site Help Get TechTV You are here: Home > TV Shows > Tech News > News > Stop or We Sue, RIAA
Says
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Premieres Weekdays at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 12 p.m. Eastern
Stop or We Sue, RIAA Says
The RIAA is set to sue thousands of song swappers.
Watch today at 8 p.m. and tomorrow at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. Eastern.
By Steve Enders, Tech Live Web producer Printer-friendly format Email this story
File swappers, beware. The RIAA may sue you.
Yeah, yeah, you've heard this warning before, right?
Think again.
In a surprise announcement Wednesday, the Recording Industry Association of
America issued its strongest warning yet to file swappers: It's watching
who's downloading and uploading music online, and it's set to sue
lawbreaking song swappers.
Tonight on "Tech Live," get the very latest on this story, including
reaction from the industry, digital rights advocates, and song swappers.
'The law is clear'
According to an RIAA statement released Wednesday, the industry is ready to
use lawsuits to stop people from illegally downloading music with
file-swapping software such as KaZaA and Morpheus.
"The law is clear and the message to those who are distributing substantial
quantities of music online should be equally clear -- this activity is
illegal, you are not anonymous when you do it, and engaging in it can have
real consequences," RIAA President Cary Sherman said in the prepared
statement. "We'd much rather spend time making music then (sic) dealing with
legal issues in courtrooms. But we cannot stand by while piracy takes a
devastating toll on artists, musicians, songwriters, retailers, and everyone
in the music industry."
The statement was endorsed by dozens of popular recording artists, including
Sheryl Crow, The Dixie Chicks, Peter Gabriel, and Missy Elliot.
The RIAA says it's beginning to gather evidence in order to bring lawsuits
to the doors of file swappers. Lawsuits could begin as soon as mid-August.
To gather evidence, the RIAA says it's using software to scan public
directories available to any user of a P2P network. The software then
downloads information on users who make files available to the P2P networks,
recording data such as what file is being offered and when it was made
available. The only way to ensure you're not a target of the RIAA is to
disable your software's ability to trade files, or get rid of the software
altogether.
Representative Mary Bono (R-California) recently founded the Intellectual
Property Promotion and Piracy Prevention Caucus to address piracy concerns.
Bono has also been named as a possible successor to Hilary Rosen, the RIAA's
outgoing chief executive and top lobbyist.
Today on Capitol Hill, Bono responded to the RIAA's announcement by saying
the government is committed to finding solutions based on what's best for
all parties involved.
"We want to meet these growing needs and grow with the Internet as it grows,
but still protect private property and intellectual property rights," she
said.
Using ISPs to target individuals
The RIAA will then identify users and contact them through subpoenas served
to the users' Internet service providers.
This same tactic was used in the recent case that made it easier for the
RIAA to go after individual downloaders. In the RIAA's case against Verizon,
a federal appeals court ordered Verizon to hand over the names of four of
its ISP customers pursued by the RIAA as illegal song swappers. Verizon has
given the RIAA the customers' names, and the RIAA has sent the four song
swappers cease and desist letters. Verizon is appealing the decision.
"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," Sherman said in the statement.
The statement goes on to cite the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (PDF) as
giving the RIAA permission to directly pursue song swappers.
The RIAA says it has worked with a number of companies to provide consumers
plenty of legal opportunities to download good-quality music from the
Internet.
"Tech Live's" Paul Chambers also contributed to this story.
What do you think of the RIAA's tactics? Sound off on our message board.
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