response 150 of 154:

Jun 26 14:22 UTC 2003

This should be about as popular as death:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31434.html

Line'em up! RIAA to sue thousands
By Ashlee Vance in San Francisco
Posted: 25/06/2003 at 21:10 GMT

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has issued the
biggest threat to date against online file-traders, saying it will sue
thousands of individuals into submission.

Starting Thursday, pigopolist grunts will begin combing P2P networks in
search of industrious file traders. Once the RIAA has targeted a large
store of copyrighted files, it will serve a subpoena on the user's ISP,
grab his/her name and address, and fire off a lawsuit.

"The RIAA 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
said in a statement. "The first round of suits could take place as early
as mid-August."

A pair of recent court rulings opened up this means of attack on
file-traders. First, a Los Angeles judge in April said P2P service
operators could not be held responsible for their users' actions. This
decision blocked the RIAA from shutting down large chunks of the P2P
community in one go - think Napster - and pushed them toward nailing
individuals.

More recently, the RIAA won another decision over Verizon, which gave it
permission to see the name and address of the ISP's customers.

Users face civil lawsuits, thousands of dollars in fines and even
criminal prosecution. At least the legal action is a more civilized way
of conducting business. Sending out fake files and having musicians
swear at users are puerile forms of protest.

For now, file traders should swap with caution. The RIAA plans to inject
network scanning software out into the vast P2P world and track what
files users are looking for and what they trade. If the RIAA bot spots
an infringing song, it marks the date and time the file is accessed.

It's unfortunate the government did not have such sophisticated tools
when it was examining the music labels' pricing fixing scheme that
pushed CD prices higher throughout the 1990s. Maybe then, the labels
would been hit with something harder than a slap on the wrist.

Time, perhaps, for a good old-fashioned consumer boycott?