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N0KFQ > TODAY 11.09.16 16:38l 60 Lines 2900 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 6857_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Sep 8
Path: IZ3LSV<IV3SCP<SR1BSZ<OK0NBR<OK2PEN<CX2SA<N0KFQ
Sent: 160908/1314Z 6857@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ6.0.12
2003
RIAA begins suing individual sharers of copyrighted mp3 files
"Nobody likes playing the heavy and having to resort to
litigation," said Cary Sherman, president of the Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA) on this day in 2003, "but
when your product is being regularly stolen, there comes a time
when you have to take appropriate action." The product in
question was music_music in the form of digital mp3 files being
transmitted among users of Internet file-sharing applications in
violation of copyright laws. And while the RIAA's idea of
"appropriate action" in response to digital music piracy had
previously meant efforts to shut down the operators of Internet
file-sharing systems, the industry group announced a new and
controversial strategy on September 8, 2003: the filing of
lawsuits against individual users of those systems, some of them
children.
"We've been telling people for a long time that file-sharing
copyrighted music is illegal, that you are not anonymous when you
do it, and that engaging in it can have real consequences," said
Mr. Sherman in announcing the RIAA's new enforcement strategy. By
September 2003, having undertaken a massive anti-piracy
public-education campaign in the months since Napster was shut
down by court order in 2001, and while still pursuing a case
against the Dutch operators of a "peer-to-peer" (P2P)
file-sharing system called Grokster, the RIAA had decided to back
up its public threats with direct legal action against
individuals.
The RIAA's announcement of their first lawsuits against
individuals was accompanied by statements of support from
music-industry players large and small, including legendary
Motown songwriter Lamond Dozier, whose plea to end digital piracy
asked those who engaged in illegal file-sharing to "step into the
shoes of [music professionals] who have families and children."
But in fact, some of the 261 defendants sued in the first round
of RIAA lawsuits were families with children_in many cases, minor
children whose parents had no idea about their kids'
music-downloading habits.
Federal law allowed the RIAA to seek damages as high as $150,000
per illegally shared song per defendant, but in practice the RIAA
offered defendants the option of establishing a "Clean Slate" by
destroying all of their illegally acquired files and paying a
settlement of approximately $3 per illegal song. A little more
than three weeks after announcing its new legal strategy on this
day in 2003, the RIAA announced that 52 of the 261 individuals
named in the initial round of lawsuits had reached such cash
settlements. Within the next 20 months, the RIAA sued a further
11,195 individuals, reaching financial settlements with 2,484.
None of the RIAA's cases against individual file-sharers has yet
gone to trial.
73 - K.O., N0KFQ
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