RIAA Lawsuits to End?
By Elizabeth T. Russell • Dec 20th, 2008 • Category: Newest Post, Sports & Entertainment LawThe Wall Street Journal reports that the recording industry is abandoning its 5-year offensive against those who allegedly download music illegally. The RIAA has sued thousands since commencing its litigation campaign in 2003, and now appears to be admitting that its tactics have done very little to achieve reductions in online piracy.
It appears that the recording industry will be seeking alternative ways to combat illegal filesharing, by “working” with internet service providers. That could be code for: making sure the ISPs restrict service to those allegedly engaged in illegal filesharing, else risk being sued themselves. From a public relations point of view, it’s much more palatable to hear about an RIAA campaign against corporate internet service providers, than against grandmothers, middle school students and (as occurred in at least one instance) the deceased.
So the anti-piracy landscape is changing. An end to this 5-year reign of terror is of course a positive development. Whether the next phase represents a reasonable approach to enforcement of the industry’s copyright rights, however, remains to be seen.
Others sure to be following this development are Ray Beckerman at Recording Industry vs. The People , P2PNET.net and Techdirt.
Elizabeth T. Russell is is a solo practitioner. Russell Law helps businesses protect their most important assets by focusing on intellectual property issues, specifically copyright, trademark and internet law. Elizabeth also enjoys a vibrant arts and entertainment law practice.
You can contact Elizabeth at:
Phone: (608) 833-1555
E-mail:
Website: www.erklaw.com
Address: 402 Gammon Place, Suite 270, Madison, WI 53719
Email this author | All posts by Elizabeth T. Russell
.jpg){kind=small}
Trying to use ISP’s as copyright enforcement goons will go over as well as suing seven year olds and their grandmothers. Maybe if they tried to sue the Adware and Spyware companies out of existence for supporting peer to peer client software then they would have gotten somewhere but then suing Adware and Spyware companies would have made the RIAA look good and they probably wouldn’t have wanted that.