Curious to see what the ramifications of this might be for
networks like SCFN.
Thoughts?
Happy Holidays.
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/31678
RIAA to halt lawsuits, cozy up to ISPs instead.
At last, the music industry admits what we've known for years:
That filing music-swapping lawsuits against teenagers, little old
ladies, and corpses is a fool's errand (not to mention an
expensive headache for the defendants). But don't worrythe RIAA
has something new up its sleeves.The new strategy (as [1]reported
by the Wall Street Journal): If the music industry finds out that
you're swapping music files online, it'll send an e-mail to your
ISP (agreements have already hashed out agreements with "some"
unnamed service providers, apparently), which will in turn
forward the message to youprobably with a little "P.S." asking
you to stop. [Update: [2]CNET has a copy of the RIAA's form
letter to ISPs.]
If you don't stop, well ... your service provider probably won't
sue you, but it might slow down your broadband connection, or cut
off your service altogether.
So, why has the RIAA changed the play? Well, maybe it's been
looking at reports [3]like this one from the NPD Group, which
shows that U.S. CD sales continue to slide, while the number of
tunes shared via P2P sites continues to increase, despite all the
litigation.
And then there's the [4]disastrous headlines, as the RIAA
relentlessly tracked down and sued tens of thousands of alleged
music pirates. Among them: Kids, octogenarians, and [5]a few dead
people.
Reaction to the news? Mixed. [6]Engadget's headline reads (in
part): "RIAA finds its soul," with the story noting that while
the RIAA reserves the right to go after "heavy uploaders or
repeat offenders ... it appears that single mothers are in the
clear."
All Things Digital [7]has a darker outlook, speculating that
ISPswhich "care about the cost of moving lots of data around
[and] want to make money by selling, renting, or just offering up
Hollywood's movies and TV shows to subscribers"might be more
than content to "cut off file-sharers
[or] simply [charge]
heavy file-sharers a lot of money."
And here's another possibility, courtesy of yours truly: Say your
ISP catches you sharing tunes via P2P. No problemdownload away!
But when you get your next cable bill, you'll find the itemized
songs added to your monthly charge, kind of like an iTunes bill.
Call it the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" strategy.
P.S. Make no mistakejust because the RIAA has stopped filing new
music-swapping lawsuits doesn't mean that it's dropped the
existing ones, according to the Journal. Quite the contrary.
References
1. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122966038836021137.html
2. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10127050-93.html
3. http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_081218.html
4. http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/41308
5. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050204-4587.html
6.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/19/riaa-finds-its-soul-will-stop-suing-individuals-for-music-pirac/
7.
http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20081219/big-music-accepts-reality-drops-lawsuit-strategy-next-up-nasty-notes-from-your-cable-telco-companies/
_______________________________________________
SoCalFreeNet.org General Discussion List
To unsubscribe, please visit:
http://socalfreenet.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_socalfreenet.org
