Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits

[cwo_ghwebb]

After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy.

The decision represents an abrupt shift of strategy for the industry, which has opened legal proceedings against about 35,000 people since 2003. 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.

The RIAA said it has agreements in principle with some ISPs, but declined to say which ones. 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.



Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits - WSJ.com

[G1G4]

The new plan, while ending the era of problem-ridden legal attacks, appears to circumvent the law and instead put the power directly into the hands of RIAA. The group says it will work directly with Internet service providers to go after people it believes are illegally sharing files. RIAA will notify an ISP, which will then warn the user and ultimately suspend or discontinue his access if a change is not observed. "Major ISPs" are said to be on board with the idea.

Effectively, RIAA has turned itself into the sheriff, and your ISP into its deputy. Based on the same data gathering and user identification methods that have come under fire from the start, RIAA will now be able to get your Internet access limited or discontinued on its own if it for some reason flags you as an illegal filesharer. And I'm not the only one left feeling a little wary about that.

[cwo_ghwebb]

Originally Posted by G1G4

The new plan, while ending the era of problem-ridden legal attacks, appears to circumvent the law and instead put the power directly into the hands of RIAA. The group says it will work directly with Internet service providers to go after people it believes are illegally sharing files. RIAA will notify an ISP, which will then warn the user and ultimately suspend or discontinue his access if a change is not observed. "Major ISPs" are said to be on board with the idea.

Effectively, RIAA has turned itself into the sheriff, and your ISP into its deputy. Based on the same data gathering and user identification methods that have come under fire from the start, RIAA will now be able to get your Internet access limited or discontinued on its own if it for some reason flags you as an illegal filesharer. And I'm not the only one left feeling a little wary about that.

You're not the only one who is uneasy about this turn of events. That was one of the reasons I posted the article.

[G1G4]

What surprises me even more, is that the government would actually allow this. Yeah, I understand getting the people that produce it in mass volumes and then sell it for resale, but for people that download it, it's a bit of a ridiculous punishment.
How are they going to know who's downloading what? I use Youtube all the time, and I view quite large videos that are usually larger than any songs and occasionally are larger than albums. Are they going to report me to my ISP and suspend my service?

[Tilted]

On a related note, Warner Music Group has asked UTube to pull all of its videos from their site after failing to negotiate a more favorable compensation arrangement.

[tater]

The music playlist (from playlist.com) has disappeared off myspace pages too.

[G1G4]

Myspace has blocked it, fearing legal action.

[Larry Gude (Premo)]

Originally Posted by cwo_ghwebb

You're not the only one who is uneasy about this turn of events. That was one of the reasons I posted the article.

...uneasy why? How are people supposed to be able to sell their work if they have no control over it once it hits the Internets?

What is an effective, practial solution?

[G1G4]

Originally Posted by Larry Gude

...uneasy why? How are people supposed to be able to sell their work if they have no control over it once it hits the Internets?

What is an effective, practial solution?

Well, would you like the RIAA to look at your every move that you do on the internet, then tell your ISP to suspend or discontinue your service? If your a hardcore net user, you go to video sharing sites, high-transfer and graphically intense websites which usually require higher than average data transfer. This can result in websites transferring over 10 mb of data at one time. That can look like someone sharing a high bitrated song, and this could go into an ISP or RIAA log.
Is the RIAA suggesting keeping a track of websites visited? The plan they suggested is just snooping in on what your browsing and busting you for not browsing what they want you to browse. Right now, a practical idea would just be to keep things as they are. Go after people that are mass reproducing and reproducing for monetary value. Otherwise, what real effective way can they stop people from sharing music?