Hundreds Subpoenaed Over Music Sharing

[mikenycLI]

Courtesy of the tampatribune.com...

Hundreds Subpoenaed Over Music Sharing

The Associated Press

Published: Jul 19, 2003

WASHINGTON - The music industry has won at least 871 federal subpoenas against computer users suspected of illegally sharing music files on the Internet, with roughly 75 new subpoenas being approved each day, U.S. court officials said Friday.
The effort represents early steps in the music industry's contentious plan to file civil lawsuits aimed at crippling online piracy.

Subpoenas reviewed by The Associated Press show the industry compelling some of the largest Internet providers, such as Verizon Communications Inc. and Comcast Cable Communications Inc., and some universities to identify names and mailing addresses for users on their networks known online by nicknames such as ``fox3j,'' ``soccerdog33,'' ``clover77'' or ``indepunk74.''

The Recording Industry Association of America has said it expects to file at least several hundred lawsuits seeking financial damages within the next eight weeks. U.S. copyright laws allow for damages of $750 to $150,000 for each song offered illegally on a person's computer, but the RIAA said it would be open to settlement proposals from defendants.

The campaign comes just weeks after U.S. appeals court rulings requiring Internet providers to readily identify subscribers suspected of illegally sharing music and movie files. The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act permits music companies to force Internet providers to turn over the names of suspected music pirates upon subpoena from any U.S. District Court clerk's office, without a judge's signature required.

In some cases, subpoenas cite as few as five songs as ``representative recordings'' of music files available for downloading from these users. The trade group for the largest music labels, the Washington-based RIAA, previously indicated its lawyers would target Internet users who offer substantial collections of MP3 song files but declined to say how many songs might qualify for a lawsuit.

``We would have to look at historic trends, but that is a very high number,'' said Alan Davidson of the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Music fans are fighting back with technology, using new software designed specifically to stymie monitoring of their online activities by the major record labels.

A new version of ``Kazaa Lite,'' free software that provides access to the service operated by Sharman Networks Ltd., can prevent anyone from listing all music files on an individual's machine and purports to block scans from Internet addresses believed to be associated with the RIAA.

Many of the subpoenas reviewed by the AP identified songs from the same few artists, including Avril Lavigne, Snoop Dogg and Michael Jackson. It was impossible to determine whether industry lawyers were searching the Internet specifically for songs by these artists or whether they were commonly popular among the roughly 60 million users of file-sharing services.


http://www.tampatrib.com/Business/MGA6I06XAID.html

[Ron]

The RIAA may stifle anywhere from "some" to "quite a bit" of file sharing, and may even at some time in the future consider the battle won. But the war will have been lost. Threatening the 16-28 year-old crowd with lawsuits is *not* the way to win the hearts and minds of that particular [and very important] segment of the music-buying population. The RIAA has already shot one toe off, but probably won't feel mission accomplished until the other nine are also lost.

[britre]

I have to agree with Ron. At this point I could really care less what they doo, as I have given up spending my hard earned dollars for new retail music. I usually buy second hand used, or eBAY for my newer music if I want it, or if it's for listening as backround, temporary MP3 listening is all I need.

Most people I talk to feel the same way I do and see this as a last attempt for a business made up of thieves and crooks to save that free ride cash cow that Rock And Roll created and made into a monster since Elvis made RCA a major player, and Toy companies found out that plastic makes great trinkets for the teens to spend allowances on.

I do guarentee suing and file sharer and fineing them will not help. After all, perhaps one might want to think a bit and maybe, just maybe that file sharer bought that CD legitimately and is sharing what he feels to be great music in that crappy 128k file format, so others will go out and buy the artists work legitimately? Thats how it works for me except of course like I said, ebay and second hand are my outlets, but the artist *still* got paid for that CD I am buying, am I right?

Last point. If you were to loose $150,000 as a fine for sharing music files, how many CD's would you be able to buy after that?

Looks like the Seller wants to kill his best customer simply because he spreads the word about quality product. I know my business would die very fast if I sued everyone who spread word of my work around for free generating new customers for me. A sad state of affairs indeed!

[Xenu]

I always find it entertaining to consider what would've happened had the publishing industry gone the same path as the music industry. Think of how much money is "lost" by the book industry each year from libraries, in-store reading, book borrowing....and yet somehow, people still manage to get by.

The record industry was formed to squeeze as much money from as many people as possible for a commodity which few are actually *comitted* to. It's foolish to think otherwise.

[Ron]

The record industry was formed to squeeze as much money from as many people as possible for a commodity which few are actually *comitted* to. It's foolish to think otherwise.

Sounds like the "C" word to me. No different from other industries, no?