Recording industry sues hundreds of individual music swappers, citing copyright law
By Alex Veiga, The Associated Press
Sep 8 2003 9:58AM

The recording industry filed hundreds of lawsuits Monday accusing individual music lovers of illegally downloading and sharing songs over the Internet.

The lawsuits, which had been expected, underscore the industry's increasing aggressiveness in cracking down on the trading of pirated music files over file-sharing networks such as Kazaa.

The 261 lawsuits were filed in federal courts around the country by the Recording Industry Association of America on behalf of its members, which include Universal Music Group, BMG, EMI, Sony Music and Warner Music. More waves of lawsuits were expected, and the total could eventually reach the thousands, the RIAA said.

Nobody likes playing the heavy and having to resort to litigation, RIAA president Cary Sherman said in a statement. But when your product is being regularly stolen, there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action.

The music industry says file-sharing is a violation of copyright laws and blames the practice for a 31 percent decline in compact disc music sales in the last three years, which have dropped 31 percent drop since mid-2000. The individuals sued Monday were sharing, on average, more than 1,000 songs each, the group said.

The recording industry also announced an amnesty program for people who admit they illegally share music online. They must, among other things, promise to delete any illegally downloaded music and not participate in illegal file-trading again.

Individuals targeted by Monday's lawsuits would be ineligible.

In June, the industry announced that it would target hundreds of individual computer users who illegally share music files, hoping to cripple online piracy by suing fans.

The announcement came just weeks after U.S. appeals court rulings requiring Internet providers to readily identify subscribers suspected of illegally sharing music and movie files.

Earlier, the recording industry association sued four college students it accused of making thousands of songs available for illegal downloading on campus networks. The group settled those cases for $12,500 to $17,000 each.

Monday's lawsuits resulted from subpoenas sent to Internet service providers and others seeking to identify roughly 1,600 people the group believes engaged in illegal music sharing.

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs' Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has promised hearings on the industry's use of copyright subpoenas to track downloaders.

Coleman has expressed concerns that the campaign could ensnare innocent people, such as parents and grandparents whose children and grandchildren are using their computers to download music. He also said some downloaders themselves might not know they are breaking the law.

U.S. copyright laws allow for damages of $750 to $150,000 for each song offered illegally on a person's computer, but the industry group has said it would be open to settlement proposals from defendants.

The industry in recent weeks also has served subpoenas on at least 10 universities in an effort to identify individual file-swappers. In response, many universities are now educating students that such file-sharing is illegal and have taken steps to make it more difficult for students to share music files over campus computer systems.
SF