Big 4’s RIAA to drop mass lawsuits
p2pnet news view | RIAA News:- After years of persecuting and terrorising thousands of innocent families and their children across the United States, Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG are trying another way to to force people to use their ‘product’.
Their RIAA is, “set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy,” says the Wall Street Journal.
Instead, the RIAA will get ISPs to do its dirty work, getting them to rat-out their customers, using the results to continue the sue ‘em all war from behind the scenes.
“The decision represents an abrupt shift of strategy for the industry, which has opened legal proceedings against about 35,000 people since 2003,” says the story, going on »»»
Critics say the legal offensive ultimately did little to stem the tide of illegally downloaded music. And it created a public-relations disaster for the industry, whose lawsuits targeted, among others, several single mothers, a dead person and a 13-year-old girl.
Instead, the Recording Industry Association of America said it plans to try an approach that relies on the cooperation of Internet-service providers. The trade group said it has hashed out preliminary agreements with major ISPs under which it will send an email to the provider when it finds a provider’s customers making music available online for others to take.
Depending on the agreement, the ISP will either forward the note to customers, or alert customers that they appear to be uploading music illegally, and ask them to stop. If the customers continue the file-sharing, they will get one or two more emails, perhaps accompanied by slower service from the provider. Finally, the ISP may cut off their access altogether.
This is little more than a realignment of a policy already being implemented in American universities.
Administrators and teaching staff are used as corporate copyright cops funded by school fees and state and federal taxpayer disbursements.
On behalf of the Big $ labels, these unpaid music industry workers send extortion letters to their students and supply confidential information used by the RIAA to victimise them, threatening them with lawsuits.
“The RIAA said it has agreements in principle with some ISPs, but declined to say which ones,” says the WSJ on behalf of the labels, continuing:
“But ISPs, which are increasingly cutting content deals of their own with entertainment companies, may have more incentive to work with the music labels now than in previous years. The new approach dispenses with one of the most contentious parts of the lawsuit strategy, which involved filing lawsuits requiring ISPs to disclose the identities of file sharers. Under the new strategy, the RIAA would forward its emails to the ISPs without demanding to know the customers’ identity.
But the RIAA is, “reserving the right to sue people who are particularly heavy file sharers, or who ignore repeated warnings” and, “expects its lawsuits to decline to a trickle,” says the story.
However, far from representing an “abrupt shift of strategy,” the news should surprise no one.
The RIAA and other Big $ front organisations such as the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) and IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry) have been ‘negotiating’ with ISPs around the world for years, claiming it’s up to them to police their networks on behalf of the corporate music industry.
“UK ISPs have agreed to become hard-core corporate copyright cops to help Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US) make sure music lovers toe the corporate line,” said a p2pnet story this simmuer, going on:
“BT, Virgin, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB and Carphone Warehouse have all signed up for a deal negotiated by the government to spam hundreds of thousands of people on behalf of the Big 4.
“Net users, ’suspected of illegally sharing music’ will get letters and some file-sharers, ‘could see their broadband connections slowed’.”
Wall Street Journal – Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits, December 19, 2008
p2pnet story - Major UK ISPs turn copyright cops, July 24, 2008
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December 19th, 2008 at 10:57 am
It really is a good news, bad news story:
Good News in that RIAA is not going after kids
Bad News is that they are going after ISP who will in all likelihood bend to the 3 strike rule or face lawsuits.
That is why an ISP tax is a good idea (along the line of CD tax). It would keep the wolfs at the gate, and if the government is smart; skim a bit off the top to develop Canadian artist.
Sadly any ISP tax will just go into general revenue, but if I was elected to the CRTC/Copyright Board, I would…. But they are appointed.
KC
December 19th, 2008 at 11:08 am
^^ Who said kids are exempt?
Cheers!
December 19th, 2008 at 11:25 am
This explains why on monday this week my ISP disabled my internet access and told me I had to call them to find out why. They said I downloaded “Catholic School Girls” which was copyrighted (I’m sure nobody in my house downloaded that file) and they said next time I get a warning, I haveto sign a piece of paper saying I won’t download copyrighted works again. After that, whenever I got on utorrent and downloaded more than 1 megabyte a second, my entire internet slows down to 56k 2kilobyte a second speeds. I am on Mediacom in North Carolina.
December 19th, 2008 at 11:59 am
^^^^
Find a friend who has a copy already, and copy it to your external hard drive.
December 19th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
^^^^
And don’t forget to CONVINCE your friends not to buy CDs, DVDs, BluRay’s or anything else made by the entertainment cartels.
Independent publishers are suffering from them too: http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/1462
December 19th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Techdirt has a good article about this to complement this one.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081219/0225073172.shtml
December 19th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Oh this again? Well here is my answer
If they can’t sue you they go after your ISP … who has no rights to police you or cut you off when you have paid your bill.
Since Rogers, Bell and others in Canada side with Big $ it’s obvious why I and many others have turned to hosting companies to provide full speeds for locals users. No I won’t say where or IP addies. Search one out in your area, usually the faster connection around
It’s also a great idea to turn the tables on Telco’s and RIAA etc., and charge whoever cuts you off for your losses. Gong rate is about 45 to 80 per hour.
We also use free Wifi bounced through many nodes to access internet and get sensitive info and files on what we call Satanists. Satanists due to the fact they are all part of the small group running this world just like Satanists and they mostly belong to Satanist groups. We serve these files for locals to share.
We also serve as many mp3’s, movies and other cool stuff from local free servers and AP’s. Anyone is free to dwld and upld all they want as long as they use RESPECT. Anyone caught doing damage is nuked and or their equipment confiscated. There are ones who can track you instantly and nuke you before you make it to the end of the block. Some even have high output EM generators take care of anyone war-driving. One shot and your electronics in your wheels are toast.
Many AP’s and servers are tied together to provide even more content. There are numerous AP’s and servers who have more than 2.5 million free files. You name it they got it. Many are right under the elite’s noses. No I won’t tell you the schemes they use to hide. Let’s just say you need to be creative. Many state, All donations are gratefully accepted, … be nice and donate whatever you can. Whether it’s time, equipment, dollars or another free hot spot … donate.
This will put the Satanists out of biz.
Your project is to become educated and create your own, tie it to others and share!
December 19th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Ever the ISP does not go with this or it will be time to develop our one world wide network system so that we don’t have to bother with ISP. The technology is there! Anyway these ISp are abusing the people alrwady just like many others large corporations.
Enounght is enounght!
December 19th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Made a special effort just because of sue’em all. Putting 1.5 TBs on line for sharing. Been up for a while now.
If they think that this will stop file sharing, I got news for them. I’ll carry a TB drive with me and offer whatever someone I know wants off the drive. Know what? Isn’t a IP to trace. Transfers will be far faster than they could have gotten on line. Plus they can get boodles more than would have been possible on line.
I’m still curious how they gonna tell what you are sharing if I hide it in an image?
December 19th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I’m highly critical of this as being a “we play nice now” PR lie. The WSJ went out of its way to say that the current 35,000 lawsuits are not stopping. All this tells me is that they don’t want to budget for more lawyers.
December 19th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
^^ And if they are stopping the lawsuits, why should the ISPs alienate their customers? What’s in it for them?
Cheers!
December 19th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
F**king retards the lot of them.
December 19th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Actually, this seems like lot more reasonable approach. I’m getting the impression from the news I read that lots of times it’s the kids in any given family who are bringing these lawsuits to the parents, at times because the kids honestly don’t realize they’re doing anything that could hang a lawsuit on their parents. And a lot of parents have no idea what their kids do on the computer. If I was a parent I’d REALLY appreciate someone giving me the heads up BEFORE I get sued. Everybody has their own opinions about file sharing, but I don’t know anyone who wants to get sued.
December 19th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
OH perhaps the best gift this christmas is a NON working virusf from the united hackers association that when they come knocking you infect and then claim someone else is the problem.
haha now want to get furthar along then that.
use hackable software
( dont use your credit card online ofcourse ) and open that wifi wide open.
Time to give them so many bad ways to try and say it was you that it will be a quick death.
December 19th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
also as i sai dif the traffic shaping of bell come sot teksavvy at 60GB its useless internet.
that means many will leave TSI and that’s something TSI can sue bell over in court.
NOw you add htis crap and how many clients will the isp have?
no one using the internet for music or movies OH my guess were back the the late to mid 90’s when we just stole internet and hacked accounts again.
YUP get ready, if big business dont play nice were ready to play with there toys no matter what they say.
December 19th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
With most people having the option of only one or two broadband service providers, this is a threat to take seriously. Losing broadband internet service (based on a guilty-until-proven-innocent basis) can be a real hassle. I miss the convenience of 56k dialup service, when I could be online again at any one of dozens of ISPs in 10 or 15 minutes.
December 20th, 2008 at 5:02 am
“And if they are stopping the lawsuits, why should the ISPs alienate their customers? What’s in it for them?”
Erm… Selling content to the MAFIAA for a percentage? Greed is a surprising motivator Jon
December 20th, 2008 at 5:03 am
Correction:
For the MAFIAA**
December 20th, 2008 at 5:05 am
Note to mention an excuse to disconnect heavy users; alleviating the need to upgrade infrastructure.
December 20th, 2008 at 11:05 am
: What’s in it for them?
If any spare RIAA lawyers suddenly find themselves with time on their hands, then they can sue a few national ISPs. Or bribe them. How did they put it? Carrot and stick approach?
Now, that’s just speculation.
All I know for sure is that if the RIAA succeeds with ISPs then we’ve got both 35,000 lawsuits AND the Industry acting as unlicensed Internet police. I seem to remember that being illegal in my State.
December 20th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
A lot of people share with each other and if the ISPs do the RIAA’s bidding, they’ll end up being directly associated with the extortion unit.
What kind of business in its right mind would want that?
And as Bob Lefsetz says [http://www.p2pnet.net/story/17950], “As for cutting off their service for stealing via their ISP… As my mother always says, what a way to make friends and influence people. And if you think you can willy-nilly cut off someone’s Internet service without a hearing, without due process, then you probably think that General Motors can suspend a person’s right to drive.”
Cheers!
December 20th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
” And if you think you can willy-nilly cut off someone’s Internet service without a hearing, without due process, ”
That’s the key right there …
Due Process.
That’s what the RIAA are desperately trying to avoid.
If the ISP wrongly terminates your connection based on faulty or no evidence, then
who has to pay to initiate the suit ?
Why the customer of course.
This forces the customer to decide whether or not their meager resources are enough to
fight a multimillion dollar corporation ( the ISP ) with a large nest of highly paid
lawyers at their beck and call.
Sounds familiar.
Who thinks they can afford to fight ?
It’s a way to not only doge due process, but to shift the responsibility, the bill, and most important,
the BLAME to someone else.
Now who out there can afford to bring such a suit against an ISP ?
December 21st, 2008 at 6:42 pm
If I were an ISP, I would be looking at which avenue is going to be a bigger waste of time. Dealing with subpoenas? Or complaints?
If I were a p2p engineer, I would be putting the finishing touches on a protocol indistinguishable from HTTP.
If I were a major record label, I would settle the 35,000 lawsuits for $30 each. That’s $1 million. Take that money, start an etail website that offers uncompressed audio for under $1 per track, and make a billion dollar profit.