p2pnet news view RIAA | P2P:- In January, “We are not working with them on this,” said Verizon spokeswoman Ellen Yu in Wired.

Comcast, “declined to comment, and referred inquiries to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association” whereupon, “The group’s vice president, Brian Dietz, said he could not confirm any deals …” The NCTA, “represents dozens of cable internet providers,” said the story.

AT&T, “declined comment through a spokesman,” and Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Charter Communications, “did not return repeated phone calls for comment”.

Hmmmmm, said p2pnet, going on:

“Strange, that. Because just before Christmas, ‘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,” said the Wall Street Journal.

Because the RIAA took it as read that ISPs would step right up and act as corporate copyright cops.

After all, Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music say it’s good business to alienate consumers by suing them. So why shouldn’t ISPs be willing to help out by providing ‘evidence’ of file sharing on the part of their own customers?

That was late last year and by now, the RIAA plan should be running nicely under full-steam with Internet Service Providers happily implementing the Big 4’s  Three Strikes and you’ re Gone policy in America, one would have thought.

However, “Six months later, the music industry is still waiting to hear from the RIAA which ISPs have explicitly agreed to work with the association,” as CNet News points out.

“When the RIAA first announced its new antipiracy project, it didn’t name partners. Behind the scenes, industry insiders assured the media that the group would disclose the names of partner ISPs ‘within weeks’.”

But not one ISP has publicly acknowledged working with the RIAA on a “graduated response.”

“According to the ISP executive who asked for anonymity because he’s involved in negotiations with the music sector, the RIAA’s tactics in dealing with the ISPs have been too heavy handed,” says the story.

The RIAA !? Heavy handed? Surely not !

Political muscle

The executive, “complained that the RIAA has tried to use Andrew Cuomo to push the ISPs into helping,” says CNet. “But Cuomo doesn’t have the kind of political muscle to sway the major ISPs when they are acting well within the law, the executive said.

Cuomo? Isn’t he the New York State attorney general?

“Enlisting the major on- and offline print and electronic media as unpaid PR pumps, with Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal as the principal mouthpiece and New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo as coordinator, Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music(US) are now touting ISPs as corporate copyright cops,” p2pnet posted shortly after the news broke.

“In the WSJ, they say their Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) will, ‘try an approach that relies on the cooperation of Internet-service providers’,” we said, continuing »»»

The newspaper doesn’t say if the RIAA is paying Cuomo for his services, or if New York taxpayers are subsidising him on behalf of the Big $ labels.

If the former, surely that’s a serious breach of New York laws, and if the latter, shouldn’t Cuomo resign on the grounds he can’t possibly represent the people who elected him when he’s also acting in vested corporate interests?

Six months on, “We keeping hearing about how (Cuomo) is supposed to make this happen,” CNet has the executive saying.

But, “You don’t see much changing, do you?”

No. You don’t.

Meanwhile, “Every day that passes we realize how important Internet connectivity is to people’s lives,” the story quotes EFF legal director Cindy Cohn as saying, adding:

“The RIAA looks so out of step with what most people think is a reasonable response to (copyright) infringing behavior. Even to the people that believe we’re locked into this 19th century view of copyright law, the RIAA looks hysterical.”

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p2pnet – Big 4’s RIAA to drop mass lawsuits, December 19, 2009
Wall Street Journal – Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits, December 19, 2008
CNet News – Six months later, no ISPs joining RIAA piracy fight, June 3, 2009
news broke – New York AG Andrew Cuomo: RIAA coordinator, December 24, 2008