Big Music sues more file sharers
p2pnet.net News:- The question, ‘When will the RIA ramp up its sue ‘em all campaign against file sharers following its ringing defeat in US courts?’ – has been answered.
Today, the RIAA launched new attacks, bringing the total number of victims pilloried so far to 4,891.
In the largest group to date, 744 men, women and children are John Doe’s – defendants whose identities aren’t known to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).
Another 152 filings were lodged against defendants identified through litigation who “declined or ignored” an RIAA “overture” to settle before the case proceeded any further, says the Big Music enforcer.
Lawsuits were filed in Atlanta, St Louis, Oakland, California, New York, Austin, Texas, Covington, Kentucky, Denver, Trenton, New Jersey, and Madison, Wisconsin.
Until now, most of the victims have been Kazaa users. This new round, however, took in other p2p applications such as LimeWire, Grokster and eDonkey.
A federal appeals court ruled, last week, that p2p companies aren’t liable for “contributory and vicarious copyright infringement” and it was a foregone conclusion that, deprived of a way of attacking the embryo p2p industry directly, the RIAA’s owners, the Big Four record labels, would turn on individual file sharers.
“I’ve never had a situation like this before, where there are powerful plaintiffs and powerful lawyers on one side and then a whole slew of ordinary folks on the other side,” said US district judge Nancy Gertner recently.
None of the RIAA’s (Recording Industry Association of America) victims have ever been found guilty of anything. The enforcement unit always makes an offer they can’t refuse: Settle out of court, or go before a judge and face our legal teams.
The defendants, ordinary people who can’t hope to match Big Music’s resources or expertise, always settle.
In a further display of unbridled power, today, the entertainment industry’s Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities (JCHEEC) said at least 20 universities have signed deals with hard-core commercial online music sales companies, including Napster II and RealNetworks, to allow them sell ‘product’ turned out by the Big Four record label cartel.
Operation Digital Gridlock, the first criminal enforcement action taken against a specified p2p operator, also hit the headlines.
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Updated @ 6:58 pm Pacific.
August 25th, 2004 at 10:33 pm
The lawsuits were filed in about 8 cities. I live in Madison, WI, one of the cities listed, and curious to hear first hand from the local newspaper what comes of this.
Luckily, there is no way I am one of them.
August 25th, 2004 at 10:38 pm
It might seem like an impossible fight for a person to go up against such a big money machine, but if only a fraction of the thousands of sued people would choose to fight the charges instead of caving in to extortion, there would likely be no more lawsuits, as the RIAA’s hands would be more than full for a long time, but by each defendant paying the ransom one by one, each victim only guarantees that there will be many more in the future.
With about $15 million raked in so far this has been a very lucrative shake-down racket.
August 25th, 2004 at 11:17 pm
what are the other cities?
August 26th, 2004 at 1:21 am
God! What a country we live in. I’m outta here.
August 26th, 2004 at 1:53 pm
As the article stated, 144 of them are standing up.
I fear for their legal costs.
August 27th, 2004 at 2:44 am
Hopefully, the EFF will have enough resources to help them fight.