RIAA

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) , which seems totally incapable of understanding that the Internet has completely and irretrievably remade their business , has ended their campaign of suing impoverished college students for downloading mp3s . Since 2003 the RIAA has sued approximately 35,000 people. Most of these lawsuits ended when their lawyers succeeded in extorting a $4000 settlement out of these kids. The reason they often targeted college students , is not just that their lack of means makes them enthusiastic freeloaders, but the assbag college administrators are usually happy to cooperate with the RIAA goons . But alas, the RIAA's ... Read Full Story

Last.fm, the UK based music community, is said to have handed over data to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of American) listing users with illegal pirated tracks. Read full article and vote. Read Full Story

 NEW YORK - AT&T Inc., the nation's largest Internet service provider, will start sending warnings to its subscribers when music labels and movie studios allege that they are trafficking in pirated material, according to an executive. The phone company thus joins other major ISPs that either go beyond legal requirements or interpret their duties under the law to mean that they have to forward such notices. Jim Cicconi, AT&T's top executive in Washington, confirmed this week that the company is looking to expand a trial program it ran late last year with movie studios. It is currently testing a system with the Recording Industry ... Read Full Story

The Internet service providers that have agreed to work with the recording industry to battle illegal file sharing are starting to come forward. Joe Waz, a senior vice president at Comcast, the nation's second largest ISP, told a gathering of music industry executives that the company has issued 2 million notices on behalf of copyright owners, according to multiple people who were in attendance Waz made the comments Tuesday while part of a panel at the Leadership Music Digital Summit in Nashville. This was the same event where an AT&T executive told the gathering that the nation's largest ISP was cooperating with the Recording ... Read Full Story

So far, the RIAA has sued over 18,000 individuals for allegedly sharing music over the Internet. But the industry uses slapdash investigative methods to find its targets, and so innocent people as well as guilty ones can find themselves entangled in an expensive and draining process. One recent victim was a woman who didn't even own a computer. Another lawsuit target was deceased. If Ms. Foster is awarded attorney's fees, it will encourage future innocent victims to stand up for themselves in court. - EFF The judge did indeed award attorneys' fees, and refused to reconsider the award: A federal judge has denied the ... Read Full Story