The Paper Trail

RIAA to Hold Off on Mass Lawsuits

December 19, 2008 RSS Feed Print

The Recording Industry Association of America confirmed Friday it will no longer pursue mass lawsuits against copyright infringers, which includes a significant number of college students, the Wall Street Journal reports. The RIAA, which has pursued about 35,000 people since 2003, said it is abandoning its longtime strategy—which critics say did little except create a public relations nightmare—and will likely seek out partnerships and cooperation with Internet-service providers.

Some preliminary arrangements made with ISPs include forwarding warnings via the ISP to those heavily engaged in illegal file-sharing to ask them to stop. If they do not, the ISP may cut off service.

The RIAA may still sue those who are particularly heavy uploaders or ignore multiple warnings.

Tags:: RIAA,; copyright,; lawsuits,; colleges

« Previous Post Next Post »

Reader Comments Read all comments (5)

Add Your Thoughts Comment Name State Email

Please enter the two words below into the text field underneath the image.

Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.

The RIAA also finds, discovers and helps the artists whose music you hear today get contracts, published, etc. While I find their acts a bit despicable and greedy. I guess if someone hit your pocketbook you might try to get revenge 'by any means necessary'. This does mean they have the right to take the law into their own hands. They should've gone through proper channels to begin with, instead of indulging in this aggregation. Although, I must say, their actions have discouraged and scared away many of my 'free music' friends from distributing their music.
Still... in some circles piracy remains an issue. But I also believe the internet has greatly helped new music artists break into the field.

Deen of CO 4:34PM December 25, 2008

When I go to a music store and buy CD's,a percentage of the money I pay goes to the recording artist as royalties.This is compensation for the fruit of their labors,i.e.their music.When people download off the internet without paying a fee,the artist gets nothing.Is that fair?Would you like to go to your job,do your best work only to be told at the end of the week that everything you did was stolen by some third party and that you were not going to be paid for all of your hard work? I don't like the record companies any more than anyone else,but,how can you screw them without screwing the artist?Sorry but you can't.Feeless downloading is theft of intellectual property,pure and simple.If you don't want to pay for your music,fine,but,don't be surprised when artists are not able to afford to keep making it.You're only hurting yourself in the long run.

Tim Schubert of IL 3:31PM December 22, 2008

They are a collective of record companies. They are not busy collecting money for "the artists," but for themselves. It is time to stop giving these people ink. If you want to talk about increasing revue for artists, fine, but why don't you talk to the artists and not these business execs.

rockyc of VA 1:14PM December 22, 2008

RIAA to Hold Off on Mass Lawsuits

Related Articles

Reader Comments Read all comments (5)

The Paper Trail

AMERICA'S BEST COLLEGES

Editor's Picks