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Trade group efforts against file sharing

March 04, 2023

Arts and media industry trade groups, such as the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), strongly oppose and attempt to prevent copyright infringement through file sharing. The organizations particularly target the distribution of files via the Internet using peer-to-peer software. Efforts by trade groups to curb such infringement have been unsuccessful with chronic, widespread and rampant infringement continuing largely unabated.

Rationale

Main article: Effects of file sharing

The trade groups also claim that widespread copyright infringement on the Internet hurts sales, in turn affecting the artists who depend on royalties. Various economic studies support these claims,[1] but not always to the degree the trade groups report.[2] Other studies show mixed effects,[3] and sometimes overall net social "welfare" benefits.[4]

Actions against Internet service providers

In March 2007, Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) members sued Eircom Limited, the largest broadband provider in Ireland, over alleged illegal file sharing by subscribers. IRMA had previously demanded that Eircom install filtering technology or take other steps to block IRMA's copyrighted music from being shared.[5]

In November 2008, a group of 34 film and television studios (including Village Roadshow, Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures, Disney and the Seven Network), represented by the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) launched action in the Federal Court of Australia against iiNet, Australia's third-largest internet service provider. AFACT alleged that iiNet customers had breached its members' copyright by using peer-to-peer software to share and download films and television programs, and that iiNet had not acted against the alleged file-sharers despite 18 notifications of copyright infringement.[6] The Federal Court found that this was not the case. The case was taken on appeal to the High Court of Australia where it was dismissed unanimously, finding that iiNet "had no direct technical power" to stop users from downloading copyrighted material illegally.[7]

Actions against file sharing services

Litigation

See also: A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc. and MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.

The RIAA first noticed that Internet sites were offering unauthorized recordings in early 1997,[8] so the organization began sending cease-and-desist letters to the operators of such sites, leading to voluntary shutdowns of some.[8][9][10]

In mid-1997, the RIAA took the recording industry's first collective legal action against online file-sharing of music, filing copyright infringement claims against the operators of three U.S.-based MP3 file-sharing sites.[8][11][12][13] Each case could have resulted in a statutory damage award of over $1 million, but all three were settled out-of-court with permanent injunctions in January 1998.[14]

In 1998, the RIAA sued the operators of two more sites, resulting in permanent injunctions and monetary damage awards against the defendants, who were also required to perform community service.[10]

In late 1999, RIAA labels sued Napster for providing a peer-to-peer file sharing network for MP3 files. The plaintiffs claimed that Napster "facilitate[d] piracy of music on an unprecedented scale."[15] Napster became bankrupt during the case; and has since been taken over by Roxio and provides a download service which is sanctioned by the RIAA.

In 2002, the RIAA sued Aimster, which provided a similar service.

In 2003, MPAA studios sued Grokster and other file sharing services in a case that would eventually go to the Supreme Court of the United States. The court held that producers of technology could be held liable for intent to induce infringement.

In 2006, RIAA labels sued the developers of LimeWire, a client for the Gnutella file sharing network.[16]

Support of police actions

See also: The Pirate Bay raid

In a controversial May 2006 raid, Swedish National Bureau of Investigation and local police seized the servers of BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay, causing a three-day outage.[17] The raid appeared to be motivated by pressure from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), a group that filed police complaints in Stockholm and Gothenborg in 2004 and 2005 against The Pirate Bay and sent a letter to Sweden's state secretary requesting action.[18][19] The raid was publicized as a success by the MPAA, but ridiculed by The Pirate Bay's operators. The 2006 raid was detailed in the documentary Steal This Film.[20]

In January 2012, the Hong Kong-based file sharing website Megaupload was discovered to be hosted on servers in the state of Virginia, allowing the US government to take action against it. On January 19, the website was shut down and its founder, Kim Dotcom, along with four others involved in the website, were arrested. The indictment issued claims that Megaupload has cost copyright holders $500 million due to its facilitation of illegal downloads.[21] The MPAA requested Carpathia, Megaupload's server host, to retain Megaupload's 25 petabytes of data in case the MPAA decided to sue Megaupload for copyright infringement. While this data includes information on 66.6 million Megaupload users, the MPAA stated that it is not interested in the identities of individual users.[22]

Peer-to-peer spoofing

Main article: Torrent poisoning

The RIAA has apparently in the past been revealed to and may have admitted to the practice of spoofing, deliberately flooding P2P networks with "junk music".[23][24] A further reference to such activity was discovered when computer software and source code along with emails were stolen from US Company "Media Defender";[25] their software was designed to facilitate "interdiction" on all the then known peer-to-peer file sharing networks. The contents of the emails made it clear that both P2P network monitoring and interdiction were undertaken by Media Defender.

Denial-of-service attacks

Aiplex Software, an India-based technology company, revealed in 2010 that it has made denial-of-service attacks on torrent hosting websites on behalf of movie studios.[26] Internet activists retaliated against Aiplex and industry trade groups with denial-of-service attacks of their own, coordinated through Operation Payback.[27]

Lawsuits against individuals

From 2005 through 2008, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) saw lawsuits against individual consumers as a way to combat the problem of Internet-based copyright infringement. RIAA President Cary Sherman claimed that the large number of lawsuits filed has "arrested the growth of a runaway solution that would have grown worse and worse."[28] As of July 2006, the RIAA had brought lawsuits against more than 20,000 people in the United States suspected of distributing copyrighted works.[29] Yet, through 2008, album sales continued to decline from their 1999 peak.[30]

Participating plaintiffs

The RIAA has brought file sharing lawsuits against individuals naming the following plaintiffs.

The MPAA has brought file sharing lawsuits against individuals naming the following plaintiffs.

Scope of distribution rights

A critical case, which may not only determine the fate of the RIAA's litigation campaign, but also impact the scope of copyright across the internet, is Elektra v. Barker.[31] In that case, Tenise Barker, a 29-year-old nursing student in the Bronx, moved to dismiss the RIAA's complaint for lack of specificity, and on the ground that merely "making available" does not constitute a copyright infringement.[32] In opposing Ms. Barker's motion, the RIAA argued that "making available" is indeed a copyright infringement. Upon learning of the RIAA's argument, which sought to expand copyright law, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, the U.S. Internet Industry Association, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) submitted amicus curiae briefs supporting Ms. Barker's motion and rebutting the RIAA's argument. The Motion Picture Association of America, in turn, submitted a brief supporting the RIAA. The U.S. Department of Justice submitted a "Statement of Interest" refuting one argument made by the EFF, but taking no position on the "making available" issue; the DOJ stated that it has never prosecuted anyone for "making available".[33] The case was argued before Judge Kenneth M. Karas in Manhattan federal court on January 26, 2007. The same issue has been briefed in a more recent case, Warner v. Cassin.[34] In March 2008, Judge Karas ruled in "Barker" that simply "making available" (such as dropping a file in a shared folder) did not constitute copyright infringement.[35]

Amnesty programs

Between September 2003 and April 2004, the RIAA, through its Clean Slate Program, offered individual file sharers amnesty for past infringements, "on the condition that they refrain from future infringement,"[36] and delete the infringing material. Individuals were no longer eligible for amnesty once they had been sued. The program is now discontinued.

The RIAA states this was an educational initiative about illegal file sharing, and was stopped due to increased public awareness in the issues. The program may also have been stopped due to the low number of takers.[37]

There is some doubt about whether the RIAA can offer this protection, with some attorneys claiming the offer of amnesty was misleading, and legal documents provided by the RIAA "provides ... no promise not to sue you."[38]

A lawsuit brought in California state court, Parke v. RIAA, alleged the RIAA had committed fraudulent business practices by offering the program.[38][39]

Collection of evidence

The RIAA and MPAA contracted MediaSentry, on behalf of plaintiff labels and studios, to collect information about IP addresses sharing potentially infringing files on peer-to-peer networks. Collected information included lists of potentially infringing files an IP address reports as available for downloading, files actually downloaded by MediaSentry from an IP address, and dates and times of the observations.

In the United States, MediaSentry is not licensed as a private investigator in some of the states in which observed files are physically located. Because of this, beginning in February 2008,[40] some defendants have challenged the legality of MediaSentry's practices, by seeking to exclude evidence collected by MediaSentry from the lawsuits, and by filing complaints with state licensing boards.

The RIAA asserted that MediaSentry is not a private investigator, so does not require licensing in any jurisdiction. Nevertheless, sometime in 2008 the RIAA quietly discontinued using MediaSentry's services.[41] A February 2008 redesign of MediaSentry's website removed a section on "litigation support services" which described "gathering evidence for civil/criminal litigation and prosecution".[42]

Early settlement offers

In February, 2007, the RIAA launched an 'early settlement program' directed to ISP's and to colleges and universities, urging them to pass along letters to subscribers and students offering early "settlements", prior to the disclosure of their identities. When accepted, these offers can save the RIAA the expense to procure the identities through a Doe lawsuit naming multiple defendants.

The settlement letters urged ISP's to preserve evidence for the benefit of the RIAA and invited the students and subscribers to visit an RIAA website for the purpose of entering into a "discount settlement" payable by credit card.[43] By March 2007, the focus had shifted from ISP's to colleges and universities.[44][45][46]

The average settlement amount offered by the RIAA is around $3,000, but it depends on the number of infringements[47] In one case in 2008, 18 UC Berkeley students were informed by the RIAA's lawfirm that they were infringing on copyrights through the use of Limewire. They were offered a settlement of $750 per song in order to avoid legal action.[48]

Identification of defendants

Between 2002 and 2003, the RIAA attempted to get Verizon to disclose the identities of file-sharing customers based on a simple one-page subpoena. Verizon attorney Sarah Deutsch challenged the subpoena's validity on procedural and privacy grounds.[49] In December 2003, this failed when a federal appeals court overturned a lower court order. The RIAA claims this procedure was sanctioned by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, but the appeals court ruled that the DMCA regulation applies only to data actually hosted by an Internet service provider, rather than data on a customer's computer. The United States Supreme Court declined to review this ruling in 2004. As a result, the RIAA must now file individual civil suits against each accused file-sharer, and the ISP and alleged file-sharer have more legal avenues for preventing disclosure of their identity, making the entire process much more expensive, slow and complicated.[50] The court opinion was written by Judge Douglas Ginsburg. The RIAA typically files suits against multiple Does.

The RIAA names defendants based on ISP identification of the subscriber associated with an IP address,[51] and as such do not know any additional information about a person before they sue. After an Internet subscriber's identity is discovered, but before an individual lawsuit is filed, the subscriber is typically offered an opportunity to settle. The standard settlement is a payment of several thousand dollars to the RIAA, and an agreement not to engage in file-sharing of RIAA music.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union and Public Citizen oppose the ability of the RIAA and other companies to "strip Internet users of anonymity without allowing them to challenge the order in court".[52][53]

The RIAA's methods of identifying individual users have led to the issuing of subpoenas to a dead grandmother,[54] an elderly computer novice,[55] and even those without any computer at all.[56] The RIAA has also brought lawsuits against children, some as young as 12.[57]

The RIAA looks to various colleges and universities throughout the United States as some of the biggest offenders of peer to peer file sharing. It has found California colleges and universities to have received the most pre-litigation letters and copyright infringement notices.[58]

In 2005, Patricia Santangelo made the news by challenging the RIAA's lawsuit against her. While she succeeded in getting the lawsuit against her dismissed two years later, her children were then sued. A default judgment entered against her daughter Michelle for $30,750 for failing to respond to the lawsuit, was subsequently vacated.[59]

Counterclaims

Another defendant, Tanya Andersen, a 41-year-old single mother living in Oregon, filed counterclaims against the RIAA including a RICO charge. The RIAA requested deposition of her 10-year-old daughter.[60] Subsequently, on July 4, 2007, the RIAA dropped the case, leaving open only the question of attorneys fees and the RIAA's liability under Ms. Andersen's counterclaims.[61] Thereafter, Ms. Andersen sued the RIAA, the record company plaintiffs, Safenet (MediaSentry), and Settlement Support Center LLC, for a huge list of accusations including fraud and negligent misrepresentation, violations of ORICO, abuse of legal process and malicious prosecution[62][63] subsequently amending her complaint to turn the case into a class action.[64]

In Texas, July 2007, Rhonda Crain (Sony v. Crain[65]) sought leave to add a counterclaim against the RIAA[66] for knowingly engaging in "one or more overt acts of unlawful private investigation" in the RIAA case against Crain.[67]

In one file-sharing case, the RIAA has been referred by the defendants as "a cartel acting collusively in violation of the antitrust laws and of public policy, by tying their copyrights to each other, collusively litigating and settling all cases together, and by entering into an unlawful agreement among themselves to prosecute and to dispose of all cases in accordance with a uniform agreement, and through common lawyers, thus overreaching the bounds and scope of whatever copyrights they might have". In Arista v. Limewire this was as well alleged by the defendants and referred to in the defendants counterclaim.

See, e.g. UMG v. Lindor,[68] where the RIAA has moved to "strike" those accusations. The motion to strike the charges is pending, and was scheduled to be taken under consideration by the Court on October 2, 2007. See also Arista vs. Limewire[69] for a detailed overview.

In February 2008 it was alleged by a group of artist managers & lawyers that the RIAA has been withholding settlements from artists for several years. The RIAA gained the money through lawsuits claiming to defend the rights of artists, although none of the artists whose music was 'illegally' downloaded reportedly received any of the settlement money.[70]

In September 2008, Charles Nesson filed a counterclaim on behalf of Joel Tenenbaum for abuse of process, claiming "ulterior purposes" of intimidation of other users.[71]

Determination of damages

By US Copyright Law, between $750 and $30,000 in damages can be sought for copyright infringement.[72] The RIAA typically seeks $750 per song file in statutory damages.[73]

In UMG v. Lindor,[74] the defendant argued that the RIAA's damage theory was unconstitutional because it sought 1071 times the actual cost per track in online stores ($.70). After a Brooklyn Federal Court judge upheld the legal theory behind the RIAA's assessment of damages in November 2006,[75][76] UMG dropped the lawsuit.

In 2008, federal judge Xavier Rodriguez ruled that teenager Whitney Harper would only have to pay $200 in damages per song that she shared on the KaZaA network, instead of the $750 per song that the RIAA was seeking. Since KaZaa did not expressly inform Harper that her actions were illegal, Rodriguez determined that she had unknowingly committed copyright infringement.[73]

In Capitol v. Thomas, a Minnesota mother was ordered to pay $222,000 ($9,250 per song) in damages to the RIAA for illegally sharing 24 songs on Kazaa. Before they first sued, the RIAA offered a settlement of $5,000, which Thomas refused. After three trials and multiple appeals, at one point of which statutory damages awarded were $1,920,000,[77] the Supreme Court refused to hear Thomas's case in March 2013. Thomas maintains that it will be impossible for the RIAA to collect the $222,000 fee due to her inability to pay.[78]

Awarding of costs to prevailing parties

In 2006, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, Public Citizen, the ACLU of Oklahoma Foundation, and the American Association of Law Libraries submitted an amicus curiae brief in support of the motion for attorneys fees that has been made by Deborah Foster in Capitol Records v. Debbie Foster, in federal court in Oklahoma, requesting that attorney's fees be awarded to the defendant and alleging a pattern of inadequate investigation and abusive legal practices by the RIAA.[79] The RIAA asked the Court not to accept the amicus curiae brief, claiming that the "Movants attempt to paint a false picture of Plaintiffs and the recording industry run amok".[80] On February 6, 2007, the attorney's fee motion was granted.[81][82][83][84] On July 16, 2007, the Court ordered the RIAA to pay Ms. Foster $68,685.23 in attorneys fees.[85]

In an Oklahoma case, Capitol Records v. Deborah Foster,[86] the RIAA was forced to dismiss a case after a woman filed a motion for leave to make a motion for summary judgment and attorneys fees, stating that she had nothing to do with file sharing and that her only nexus to the case was that she had paid for internet access. The judge ruled that the RIAA's withdrawal of the case—after one and a half years of litigation—did not immunize it from possible liability for attorneys fees, holding that the defendant was a "prevailing party" under the Copyright Act.[87] The Court subsequently ruled that defendant was entitled to be reimbursed for her reasonable attorneys fees, since the RIAA's pursuit of its case was, at best, "marginal", and was being pursued to extract a settlement from someone who was clearly known not to be the direct infringer.[81] The Court noted that the mere fact that Ms. Foster was a person who paid for an internet access account was not a basis for a copyright infringement lawsuit against her. Ms. Foster's motion for attorneys fees had been supported by an amicus curiae brief of the American Civil Liberties Union, Public Citizen, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Association of Law Libraries, and ACLU Foundation of Oklahoma.

Other instances in which the RIAA was known to have been forced to back out of a case to avoid a loss, are Priority Records v. Brittany Chan in Michigan, Virgin Records v. Tammie Marson[88] in California, and Elektra v. Wilke[89] in Illinois.

End of mass lawsuits

Hilary Rosen was the RIAA's president and chief executive officer from 1998 to 2003 and under her leadership, the company commenced a legal campaign to reduce illegal file-sharing. Rosen has expressed "concern that the lawsuits have outlived most of their usefulness" and that music devices should try "to work better together."[90]

In December 2008 the Wall Street Journal reported that the RIAA had dropped its program of mass lawsuits in favor of cooperative enforcement agreements with a number of ISPs. The RIAA still reserves the right to file lawsuits against 'particularly flagrant' offenders, but the article predicted these lawsuits would "slow to a trickle."[91]

The RIAA has stated on their website that the intention of the lawsuit program was to bring awareness to the illegality of file-sharing.[92] Although there is evidence that the lawsuit program has reduced the amount of files offered by large file-sharers, one source stated in 2006 that there was a limited effect on those who offer less than 1000 files. Overall, the lawsuits have had a negligible effect on the availability of files at any random time.[93]

Public relations campaigns

Trade groups have conducted various public relations campaigns targeting consumer file sharing:

Criticism

There is much criticism of the RIAA's policy and method of suing individuals for copyright infringement, notably with Internet-based advocacy groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Students for Free Culture.[94] To date, the RIAA has sued more than 20,000[95] people in the United States suspected of distributing copyrighted works and settled approximately 2,500 of the cases. Brad Templeton of the Electronic Frontier Foundation has called these types of lawsuits spamigation and implied they are done merely to intimidate people.[96]

The RIAA was criticized in the media after they subpoenaed Gertrude Walton, an 83-year-old woman who died in December 2004.[97] Walton was accused of swapping rock, pop and rap songs. RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy commented that legal proceedings had commenced before Walton died. "Our evidence gathering and our subsequent legal actions all were initiated weeks and even months ago."

In a Brooklyn case, Elektra v. Schwartz,[98] against RaeJ Schwartz, a Queens woman with multiple sclerosis, the RIAA's lawyers wrote to the judge that they were in possession of a letter in which "...America Online, Inc., has confirmed that defendant was the owner of the internet access account through which hundreds of plaintiffs' sound recordings were downloaded and distributed to the public without plaintiffs' consent." After the defense received a copy of the letter, it turned out that the letter merely identified Ms. Schwartz as the owner of an internet access account and said nothing at all about "downloading" or "distributing".[99]

The RIAA has also been criticized for bringing lawsuits against children, including 12-year-old Brianna LaHara of New York City in 2003[57] and 13-year-old Brittany Chan of Michigan. Under the threat of a possible defendant's motion for summary judgment and attorneys fees, the RIAA withdrew the case Priority Records v. Chan.[100][101] while LaHara's mother agreed to pay $2,000 in settlements.

The RIAA's recent targeting of students has generated controversy as well. An April 4, 2006 story in the MIT campus newspaper The Tech indicates that an RIAA representative stated to Cassi Hunt, an alleged file-sharer, that previously, "the RIAA has been known to suggest that students drop out of college or go to community college in order to be able to afford settlements."[102]

The RIAA has also filed a lawsuit against a woman who has never bought, turned on, or used a personal computer for using an "online distribution system" to obtain unlicensed music files.[103] This occurred again in the Walls case;

"I don't understand this", said James Walls, "How can they sue us when we don't even have a computer?"[56]

The RIAA filed a lawsuit against Larry Scantlebury, a man who had died. They offered the deceased man's family a period of sixty days to grieve the death before they began to depose members of Mr. Scantlebury's family for the suit against his estate.[104]

An academic study by Depoorter et al. (2011) among American and European college students found that users of file-sharing technologies were relatively anti-copyright and that copyright enforcement efforts generated backlash, hardening pro-file sharing beliefs among users of these technologies.[105]

See also

References

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March 04, 2023
trade, group, efforts, against, file, sharing, this, article, multiple, issues, please, help, improve, discuss, these, issues, talk, page, learn, when, remove, these, template, messages, this, article, needs, updated, please, help, update, this, article, refle. This article has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages This article needs to be updated Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information December 2012 This article may be unbalanced towards certain viewpoints Please improve the article by adding information on neglected viewpoints or discuss the issue on the talk page June 2009 Learn how and when to remove this template message Arts and media industry trade groups such as the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry IFPI and Motion Picture Association of America MPAA strongly oppose and attempt to prevent copyright infringement through file sharing The organizations particularly target the distribution of files via the Internet using peer to peer software Efforts by trade groups to curb such infringement have been unsuccessful with chronic widespread and rampant infringement continuing largely unabated Contents 1 Rationale 2 Actions against Internet service providers 3 Actions against file sharing services 3 1 Litigation 3 2 Support of police actions 3 3 Peer to peer spoofing 3 4 Denial of service attacks 4 Lawsuits against individuals 4 1 Participating plaintiffs 4 2 Scope of distribution rights 4 3 Amnesty programs 4 4 Collection of evidence 4 5 Early settlement offers 4 6 Identification of defendants 4 7 Counterclaims 4 8 Determination of damages 4 9 Awarding of costs to prevailing parties 4 10 End of mass lawsuits 5 Public relations campaigns 6 Criticism 7 See also 8 ReferencesRationale EditMain article Effects of file sharing The trade groups also claim that widespread copyright infringement on the Internet hurts sales in turn affecting the artists who depend on royalties Various economic studies support these claims 1 but not always to the degree the trade groups report 2 Other studies show mixed effects 3 and sometimes overall net social welfare benefits 4 Actions against Internet service providers EditIn March 2007 Irish Recorded Music Association IRMA members sued Eircom Limited the largest broadband provider in Ireland over alleged illegal file sharing by subscribers IRMA had previously demanded that Eircom install filtering technology or take other steps to block IRMA s copyrighted music from being shared 5 In November 2008 a group of 34 film and television studios including Village Roadshow Warner Brothers Sony Pictures Disney and the Seven Network represented by the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft AFACT launched action in the Federal Court of Australia against iiNet Australia s third largest internet service provider AFACT alleged that iiNet customers had breached its members copyright by using peer to peer software to share and download films and television programs and that iiNet had not acted against the alleged file sharers despite 18 notifications of copyright infringement 6 The Federal Court found that this was not the case The case was taken on appeal to the High Court of Australia where it was dismissed unanimously finding that iiNet had no direct technical power to stop users from downloading copyrighted material illegally 7 Actions against file sharing services EditLitigation Edit See also A amp M Records Inc v Napster Inc and MGM Studios Inc v Grokster Ltd The RIAA first noticed that Internet sites were offering unauthorized recordings in early 1997 8 so the organization began sending cease and desist letters to the operators of such sites leading to voluntary shutdowns of some 8 9 10 In mid 1997 the RIAA took the recording industry s first collective legal action against online file sharing of music filing copyright infringement claims against the operators of three U S based MP3 file sharing sites 8 11 12 13 Each case could have resulted in a statutory damage award of over 1 million but all three were settled out of court with permanent injunctions in January 1998 14 In 1998 the RIAA sued the operators of two more sites resulting in permanent injunctions and monetary damage awards against the defendants who were also required to perform community service 10 In late 1999 RIAA labels sued Napster for providing a peer to peer file sharing network for MP3 files The plaintiffs claimed that Napster facilitate d piracy of music on an unprecedented scale 15 Napster became bankrupt during the case and has since been taken over by Roxio and provides a download service which is sanctioned by the RIAA In 2002 the RIAA sued Aimster which provided a similar service In 2003 MPAA studios sued Grokster and other file sharing services in a case that would eventually go to the Supreme Court of the United States The court held that producers of technology could be held liable for intent to induce infringement In 2006 RIAA labels sued the developers of LimeWire a client for the Gnutella file sharing network 16 Support of police actions Edit See also The Pirate Bay raid In a controversial May 2006 raid Swedish National Bureau of Investigation and local police seized the servers of BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay causing a three day outage 17 The raid appeared to be motivated by pressure from the Motion Picture Association of America MPAA a group that filed police complaints in Stockholm and Gothenborg in 2004 and 2005 against The Pirate Bay and sent a letter to Sweden s state secretary requesting action 18 19 The raid was publicized as a success by the MPAA but ridiculed by The Pirate Bay s operators The 2006 raid was detailed in the documentary Steal This Film 20 In January 2012 the Hong Kong based file sharing website Megaupload was discovered to be hosted on servers in the state of Virginia allowing the US government to take action against it On January 19 the website was shut down and its founder Kim Dotcom along with four others involved in the website were arrested The indictment issued claims that Megaupload has cost copyright holders 500 million due to its facilitation of illegal downloads 21 The MPAA requested Carpathia Megaupload s server host to retain Megaupload s 25 petabytes of data in case the MPAA decided to sue Megaupload for copyright infringement While this data includes information on 66 6 million Megaupload users the MPAA stated that it is not interested in the identities of individual users 22 Peer to peer spoofing Edit Main article Torrent poisoning The RIAA has apparently in the past been revealed to and may have admitted to the practice of spoofing deliberately flooding P2P networks with junk music 23 24 A further reference to such activity was discovered when computer software and source code along with emails were stolen from US Company Media Defender 25 their software was designed to facilitate interdiction on all the then known peer to peer file sharing networks The contents of the emails made it clear that both P2P network monitoring and interdiction were undertaken by Media Defender Denial of service attacks Edit Aiplex Software an India based technology company revealed in 2010 that it has made denial of service attacks on torrent hosting websites on behalf of movie studios 26 Internet activists retaliated against Aiplex and industry trade groups with denial of service attacks of their own coordinated through Operation Payback 27 Lawsuits against individuals EditFrom 2005 through 2008 the Recording Industry Association of America RIAA saw lawsuits against individual consumers as a way to combat the problem of Internet based copyright infringement RIAA President Cary Sherman claimed that the large number of lawsuits filed has arrested the growth of a runaway solution that would have grown worse and worse 28 As of July 2006 the RIAA had brought lawsuits against more than 20 000 people in the United States suspected of distributing copyrighted works 29 Yet through 2008 album sales continued to decline from their 1999 peak 30 Participating plaintiffs Edit The RIAA has brought file sharing lawsuits against individuals naming the following plaintiffs EMI labels Capitol Records Priority Records Virgin Records Sony BMG labels Arista Records Bertelsmann Music Group LaFace Records Sony Records Zomba Label Group Universal Music Group labels Interscope Records Loud Records Motown Records Univision labels Fonovisa Records Warner Music Group labels Atlantic Records Elektra Records Lava Records London Sire Records Maverick Records Warner Bros RecordsThe MPAA has brought file sharing lawsuits against individuals naming the following plaintiffs Lions Gate Entertainment News Corporation studios 20th Century Fox Paramount Pictures Sony Pictures studios Columbia Pictures Metro Goldwyn Mayer Screen Gems Time Warner studios New Line Cinema Warner Bros Universal Studios The Walt Disney CompanyScope of distribution rights Edit A critical case which may not only determine the fate of the RIAA s litigation campaign but also impact the scope of copyright across the internet is Elektra v Barker 31 In that case Tenise Barker a 29 year old nursing student in the Bronx moved to dismiss the RIAA s complaint for lack of specificity and on the ground that merely making available does not constitute a copyright infringement 32 In opposing Ms Barker s motion the RIAA argued that making available is indeed a copyright infringement Upon learning of the RIAA s argument which sought to expand copyright law the Computer amp Communications Industry Association the U S Internet Industry Association and the Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF submitted amicus curiae briefs supporting Ms Barker s motion and rebutting the RIAA s argument The Motion Picture Association of America in turn submitted a brief supporting the RIAA The U S Department of Justice submitted a Statement of Interest refuting one argument made by the EFF but taking no position on the making available issue the DOJ stated that it has never prosecuted anyone for making available 33 The case was argued before Judge Kenneth M Karas in Manhattan federal court on January 26 2007 The same issue has been briefed in a more recent case Warner v Cassin 34 In March 2008 Judge Karas ruled in Barker that simply making available such as dropping a file in a shared folder did not constitute copyright infringement 35 Amnesty programs Edit Between September 2003 and April 2004 the RIAA through its Clean Slate Program offered individual file sharers amnesty for past infringements on the condition that they refrain from future infringement 36 and delete the infringing material Individuals were no longer eligible for amnesty once they had been sued The program is now discontinued The RIAA states this was an educational initiative about illegal file sharing and was stopped due to increased public awareness in the issues The program may also have been stopped due to the low number of takers 37 There is some doubt about whether the RIAA can offer this protection with some attorneys claiming the offer of amnesty was misleading and legal documents provided by the RIAA provides no promise not to sue you 38 A lawsuit brought in California state court Parke v RIAA alleged the RIAA had committed fraudulent business practices by offering the program 38 39 Collection of evidence Edit The RIAA and MPAA contracted MediaSentry on behalf of plaintiff labels and studios to collect information about IP addresses sharing potentially infringing files on peer to peer networks Collected information included lists of potentially infringing files an IP address reports as available for downloading files actually downloaded by MediaSentry from an IP address and dates and times of the observations In the United States MediaSentry is not licensed as a private investigator in some of the states in which observed files are physically located Because of this beginning in February 2008 40 some defendants have challenged the legality of MediaSentry s practices by seeking to exclude evidence collected by MediaSentry from the lawsuits and by filing complaints with state licensing boards The RIAA asserted that MediaSentry is not a private investigator so does not require licensing in any jurisdiction Nevertheless sometime in 2008 the RIAA quietly discontinued using MediaSentry s services 41 A February 2008 redesign of MediaSentry s website removed a section on litigation support services which described gathering evidence for civil criminal litigation and prosecution 42 Early settlement offers Edit In February 2007 the RIAA launched an early settlement program directed to ISP s and to colleges and universities urging them to pass along letters to subscribers and students offering early settlements prior to the disclosure of their identities When accepted these offers can save the RIAA the expense to procure the identities through a Doe lawsuit naming multiple defendants The settlement letters urged ISP s to preserve evidence for the benefit of the RIAA and invited the students and subscribers to visit an RIAA website for the purpose of entering into a discount settlement payable by credit card 43 By March 2007 the focus had shifted from ISP s to colleges and universities 44 45 46 The average settlement amount offered by the RIAA is around 3 000 but it depends on the number of infringements 47 In one case in 2008 18 UC Berkeley students were informed by the RIAA s lawfirm that they were infringing on copyrights through the use of Limewire They were offered a settlement of 750 per song in order to avoid legal action 48 Identification of defendants Edit Between 2002 and 2003 the RIAA attempted to get Verizon to disclose the identities of file sharing customers based on a simple one page subpoena Verizon attorney Sarah Deutsch challenged the subpoena s validity on procedural and privacy grounds 49 In December 2003 this failed when a federal appeals court overturned a lower court order The RIAA claims this procedure was sanctioned by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act but the appeals court ruled that the DMCA regulation applies only to data actually hosted by an Internet service provider rather than data on a customer s computer The United States Supreme Court declined to review this ruling in 2004 As a result the RIAA must now file individual civil suits against each accused file sharer and the ISP and alleged file sharer have more legal avenues for preventing disclosure of their identity making the entire process much more expensive slow and complicated 50 The court opinion was written by Judge Douglas Ginsburg The RIAA typically files suits against multiple Does The RIAA names defendants based on ISP identification of the subscriber associated with an IP address 51 and as such do not know any additional information about a person before they sue After an Internet subscriber s identity is discovered but before an individual lawsuit is filed the subscriber is typically offered an opportunity to settle The standard settlement is a payment of several thousand dollars to the RIAA and an agreement not to engage in file sharing of RIAA music The Electronic Frontier Foundation American Civil Liberties Union and Public Citizen oppose the ability of the RIAA and other companies to strip Internet users of anonymity without allowing them to challenge the order in court 52 53 The RIAA s methods of identifying individual users have led to the issuing of subpoenas to a dead grandmother 54 an elderly computer novice 55 and even those without any computer at all 56 The RIAA has also brought lawsuits against children some as young as 12 57 The RIAA looks to various colleges and universities throughout the United States as some of the biggest offenders of peer to peer file sharing It has found California colleges and universities to have received the most pre litigation letters and copyright infringement notices 58 In 2005 Patricia Santangelo made the news by challenging the RIAA s lawsuit against her While she succeeded in getting the lawsuit against her dismissed two years later her children were then sued A default judgment entered against her daughter Michelle for 30 750 for failing to respond to the lawsuit was subsequently vacated 59 Counterclaims Edit Another defendant Tanya Andersen a 41 year old single mother living in Oregon filed counterclaims against the RIAA including a RICO charge The RIAA requested deposition of her 10 year old daughter 60 Subsequently on July 4 2007 the RIAA dropped the case leaving open only the question of attorneys fees and the RIAA s liability under Ms Andersen s counterclaims 61 Thereafter Ms Andersen sued the RIAA the record company plaintiffs Safenet MediaSentry and Settlement Support Center LLC for a huge list of accusations including fraud and negligent misrepresentation violations of ORICO abuse of legal process and malicious prosecution 62 63 subsequently amending her complaint to turn the case into a class action 64 In Texas July 2007 Rhonda Crain Sony v Crain 65 sought leave to add a counterclaim against the RIAA 66 for knowingly engaging in one or more overt acts of unlawful private investigation in the RIAA case against Crain 67 In one file sharing case the RIAA has been referred by the defendants as a cartel acting collusively in violation of the antitrust laws and of public policy by tying their copyrights to each other collusively litigating and settling all cases together and by entering into an unlawful agreement among themselves to prosecute and to dispose of all cases in accordance with a uniform agreement and through common lawyers thus overreaching the bounds and scope of whatever copyrights they might have In Arista v Limewire this was as well alleged by the defendants and referred to in the defendants counterclaim See e g UMG v Lindor 68 where the RIAA has moved to strike those accusations The motion to strike the charges is pending and was scheduled to be taken under consideration by the Court on October 2 2007 See also Arista vs Limewire 69 for a detailed overview In February 2008 it was alleged by a group of artist managers amp lawyers that the RIAA has been withholding settlements from artists for several years The RIAA gained the money through lawsuits claiming to defend the rights of artists although none of the artists whose music was illegally downloaded reportedly received any of the settlement money 70 In September 2008 Charles Nesson filed a counterclaim on behalf of Joel Tenenbaum for abuse of process claiming ulterior purposes of intimidation of other users 71 Determination of damages Edit By US Copyright Law between 750 and 30 000 in damages can be sought for copyright infringement 72 The RIAA typically seeks 750 per song file in statutory damages 73 In UMG v Lindor 74 the defendant argued that the RIAA s damage theory was unconstitutional because it sought 1071 times the actual cost per track in online stores 70 After a Brooklyn Federal Court judge upheld the legal theory behind the RIAA s assessment of damages in November 2006 75 76 UMG dropped the lawsuit In 2008 federal judge Xavier Rodriguez ruled that teenager Whitney Harper would only have to pay 200 in damages per song that she shared on the KaZaA network instead of the 750 per song that the RIAA was seeking Since KaZaa did not expressly inform Harper that her actions were illegal Rodriguez determined that she had unknowingly committed copyright infringement 73 In Capitol v Thomas a Minnesota mother was ordered to pay 222 000 9 250 per song in damages to the RIAA for illegally sharing 24 songs on Kazaa Before they first sued the RIAA offered a settlement of 5 000 which Thomas refused After three trials and multiple appeals at one point of which statutory damages awarded were 1 920 000 77 the Supreme Court refused to hear Thomas s case in March 2013 Thomas maintains that it will be impossible for the RIAA to collect the 222 000 fee due to her inability to pay 78 Awarding of costs to prevailing parties Edit In 2006 the Electronic Frontier Foundation the American Civil Liberties Union Public Citizen the ACLU of Oklahoma Foundation and the American Association of Law Libraries submitted an amicus curiae brief in support of the motion for attorneys fees that has been made by Deborah Foster in Capitol Records v Debbie Foster in federal court in Oklahoma requesting that attorney s fees be awarded to the defendant and alleging a pattern of inadequate investigation and abusive legal practices by the RIAA 79 The RIAA asked the Court not to accept the amicus curiae brief claiming that the Movants attempt to paint a false picture of Plaintiffs and the recording industry run amok 80 On February 6 2007 the attorney s fee motion was granted 81 82 83 84 On July 16 2007 the Court ordered the RIAA to pay Ms Foster 68 685 23 in attorneys fees 85 In an Oklahoma case Capitol Records v Deborah Foster 86 the RIAA was forced to dismiss a case after a woman filed a motion for leave to make a motion for summary judgment and attorneys fees stating that she had nothing to do with file sharing and that her only nexus to the case was that she had paid for internet access The judge ruled that the RIAA s withdrawal of the case after one and a half years of litigation did not immunize it from possible liability for attorneys fees holding that the defendant was a prevailing party under the Copyright Act 87 The Court subsequently ruled that defendant was entitled to be reimbursed for her reasonable attorneys fees since the RIAA s pursuit of its case was at best marginal and was being pursued to extract a settlement from someone who was clearly known not to be the direct infringer 81 The Court noted that the mere fact that Ms Foster was a person who paid for an internet access account was not a basis for a copyright infringement lawsuit against her Ms Foster s motion for attorneys fees had been supported by an amicus curiae brief of the American Civil Liberties Union Public Citizen the Electronic Frontier Foundation the American Association of Law Libraries and ACLU Foundation of Oklahoma Other instances in which the RIAA was known to have been forced to back out of a case to avoid a loss are Priority Records v Brittany Chan in Michigan Virgin Records v Tammie Marson 88 in California and Elektra v Wilke 89 in Illinois End of mass lawsuits Edit Hilary Rosen was the RIAA s president and chief executive officer from 1998 to 2003 and under her leadership the company commenced a legal campaign to reduce illegal file sharing Rosen has expressed concern that the lawsuits have outlived most of their usefulness and that music devices should try to work better together 90 In December 2008 the Wall Street Journal reported that the RIAA had dropped its program of mass lawsuits in favor of cooperative enforcement agreements with a number of ISPs The RIAA still reserves the right to file lawsuits against particularly flagrant offenders but the article predicted these lawsuits would slow to a trickle 91 The RIAA has stated on their website that the intention of the lawsuit program was to bring awareness to the illegality of file sharing 92 Although there is evidence that the lawsuit program has reduced the amount of files offered by large file sharers one source stated in 2006 that there was a limited effect on those who offer less than 1000 files Overall the lawsuits have had a negligible effect on the availability of files at any random time 93 Public relations campaigns EditTrade groups have conducted various public relations campaigns targeting consumer file sharing The MPAA s Respect Copyrights campaigns including the Who Makes Movies and You can click but you can t hide sub campaigns The RIAA s Soundbyting campaign Access Copyright s Captain Copyright campaign in Canada The Business Software Alliance s Define The Line campaign The Federation Against Software Theft s Piracy is theft campaign in the UK Criticism EditThere is much criticism of the RIAA s policy and method of suing individuals for copyright infringement notably with Internet based advocacy groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Students for Free Culture 94 To date the RIAA has sued more than 20 000 95 people in the United States suspected of distributing copyrighted works and settled approximately 2 500 of the cases Brad Templeton of the Electronic Frontier Foundation has called these types of lawsuits spamigation and implied they are done merely to intimidate people 96 The RIAA was criticized in the media after they subpoenaed Gertrude Walton an 83 year old woman who died in December 2004 97 Walton was accused of swapping rock pop and rap songs RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy commented that legal proceedings had commenced before Walton died Our evidence gathering and our subsequent legal actions all were initiated weeks and even months ago In a Brooklyn case Elektra v Schwartz 98 against RaeJ Schwartz a Queens woman with multiple sclerosis the RIAA s lawyers wrote to the judge that they were in possession of a letter in which America Online Inc has confirmed that defendant was the owner of the internet access account through which hundreds of plaintiffs sound recordings were downloaded and distributed to the public without plaintiffs consent After the defense received a copy of the letter it turned out that the letter merely identified Ms Schwartz as the owner of an internet access account and said nothing at all about downloading or distributing 99 The RIAA has also been criticized for bringing lawsuits against children including 12 year old Brianna LaHara of New York City in 2003 57 and 13 year old Brittany Chan of Michigan Under the threat of a possible defendant s motion for summary judgment and attorneys fees the RIAA withdrew the case Priority Records v Chan 100 101 while LaHara s mother agreed to pay 2 000 in settlements The RIAA s recent targeting of students has generated controversy as well An April 4 2006 story in the MIT campus newspaper The Tech indicates that an RIAA representative stated to Cassi Hunt an alleged file sharer that previously the RIAA has been known to suggest that students drop out of college or go to community college in order to be able to afford settlements 102 The RIAA has also filed a lawsuit against a woman who has never bought turned on or used a personal computer for using an online distribution system to obtain unlicensed music files 103 This occurred again in the Walls case I don t understand this said James Walls How can they sue us when we don t even have a computer 56 The RIAA filed a lawsuit against Larry Scantlebury a man who had died They offered the deceased man s family a period of sixty days to grieve the death before they began to depose members of Mr Scantlebury s family for the suit against his estate 104 An academic study by Depoorter et al 2011 among American and European college students found that users of file sharing technologies were relatively anti copyright and that copyright enforcement efforts generated backlash hardening pro file sharing beliefs among users of these technologies 105 See also Edit Law portalGraduated response Legal issues with BitTorrent Odex s actions against file sharing Open Music Model Torrent poisoning Virtual private network Warez Internet vigilantismReferences Edit Liebowitz Stan J 2006 File Sharing Creative Destruction or Just Plain Destruction The Journal of Law and Economics 49 3 1 28 CiteSeerX 10 1 1 320 601 doi 10 1086 503518 JSTOR 503518 S2CID 6000126 Glenn David Dispute Over the Economics of File Sharing Intensifies Chronicle com July 17 2008 Thesis Bjerkoe and Sorbo Norwegian School of Management scribd com Ups And Downs authorised translation Archived 2011 08 15 at the Wayback Machine IVIR nl 2009 Eircom rejects record firms claims RTE 2008 04 21 Retrieved 2022 08 24 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help Foo Fran Film giants pursue file sharers The Australian 25 November 2008 Ben Grubb Asher Moses 21 April 2012 Piracy ruling blow to film industry giants Canberra Times Fairfax Media Retrieved 23 April 2012 a b c Jeffrey Don June 21 1997 Downloading Songs Subject Of RIAA Suit Billboard pp 3 83 Bits n Bytes Billboard Nielsen Business Media Inc May 17 1997 p 57 a b RIAA Releases Yearend Anti Piracy Statistics Recording Industry Association of America A amp M Records Inc v Internet Site Known as Fresh Kutz Case No 97 CV 1099 H JFS S D Cal filed June 9 1997 order to show cause issued June 10 1997 settled January 1998 Sony Music Entertainment v Internet Site Known as FTP 208 197 0 28 Civil Action No 97 Civ 4245 S D N Y case filed June 12 1997 settled January 1998 MCA Records Inc v Internet Site Known as FTP Parsoft com MP3s Case No 97 CV 1360 T N D Tex case filed June 9 1997 settled January 1998 Three Internet Copyright Infringement Cases Settled Recording Industry Association of America Frequently Asked Questions Napster and Digital Music RIAA Website Sandoval Greg 12 May 2010 RIAA Wins Big in LimeWire Lawsuit CNET Retrieved 17 Apr 2012 Swedish police shut down major piracy site AFP June 1 2006 Roper Louis US government behind Pirate Bay raid The Local June 2 2006 Doctorow Cory MPAA s PirateBay letter to Swedish Sec ty of State Boing Boing June 20 2006 Ernesto 31 May 2007 The Pirate Bay One Year After the Raid TorrentFreak Retrieved 17 Apr 2012 Freeman Kate 20 Jan 2012 Megaupload Is Back Without a Domain Name Yahoo News Retrieved 17 Apr 2012 Kravets David 21 Mar 2012 MPAA Wants Megaupload User Data Retained for Lawsuits Wired Retrieved 17 Apr 2012 The Register January 17 2003 I poisoned P2P networks for the RIAA whistleblower The Register Retrieved 2009 04 23 The Register March 18 2003 RIAA chief invokes Martin Luther King in pigopoly defense P2P poisoning ISP clampdown justified The Register Retrieved 2009 04 23 Ars Technica September 16 2007 Leaked Media Defender e mails reveal secret government project Retrieved 2010 06 23 Chacksfield Mark 8 September 2010 Movie industry launching cyber attacks on pirate websites TechRadar Retrieved 2010 12 10 Leyden John September 22 2010 4chan launches DDoS against entertainment industry The Register Retrieved 2010 10 22 RIAA s next moves in Washington ZDNet May 26 2006 How To Not Get Sued for File Sharing July 2006 Retrieved 2014 11 21 The real reason why the music industry collapsed Australian Broadcasting Corporation 24 May 2012 Retrieved 2014 11 21 Elektra v Barker Recording Industry vs The People blog Is Making Available Copyright Infringement Hollywood Reporter ESQ Statement of Interest of US Government in Elektra Barker Archived 2010 01 18 at the Wayback Machine page 5 footnote 3 ILRweb com Warner v Cassin Recording Industry vs The People blog January 2007 Elektra Entertainment et al v Denise Barker United States District Court Southern District of New York 31 March 2008 Text Clean Slate Program RIAA Website 1 108 people signed up to the Clean Slate program according to RIAA Drops Clean Slate Fraser Lovatt Digital Lifestyles org April 21 2004 a b Ira Rothken September 11 2003 Consumers Strike Back Sue RIAA Archived 2006 06 28 at the Wayback Machine PCWorld com Parke v RIAA Complaint September 9 2003 Mennecke Thomas February 6 2008 RIAA Not Impressed with Legal Concerns Surrounding MediaSentry Slyck com Retrieved 2008 06 22 Changing Tack RIAA Ditches MediaSentry Retrieved 2008 06 22 Bangeman Eric February 19 2008 MediaSentry site redesign drops references to litigation Ars Technica Retrieved 2008 06 22 RIAA Adopts New Policy offers Pre Doe settlement option if ISP Holds Logs Longer Asks ISP s to Correct Identification Mistakes Recording Industry vs The People blog February 13 2007 RIAA targets university students Variety com Read Brock March 16 2007 Record Companies to Accused Pirates Deal or No Deal The Chronicle of Higher Education p A31 Retrieved 2007 04 02 Elizabeth Lauten April 4 2007 Recording industry battles piracy Archived 2007 09 27 at archive today The East Carolinian East Carolina University Fisher Ken March 26 2007 Students largely ignore RIAA instant settlement offers Ars Technica RIAA set to sue Cal student for allegedly illegal music sharing 21 January 2008 Verizon s copyright campaign Declan McCullagh Austin amp Central Texas Injury Lawyer Austin amp Central Texas Injury Lawyer CBS News December 27 2005 Mom Fights Recording Industry Retrieved 2007 04 02 Citing Right to Anonymity Online ACLU Asks Boston Court to Block Recording Industry Subpoena Press release American Civil Liberties Union September 29 2003 Retrieved April 2 2007 Record Industry Cuts Corners in Crusade Against File Sharers Press release Public Citizen 2004 02 02 Retrieved 2007 04 03 I sue dead people Ars Technica February 4 2005 Grandmother piracy lawsuit dropped BBC News September 26 2003 Retrieved 2007 04 03 a b Bylund Anders April 24 2006 RIAA sues computer less family Ars Technica a b RIAA settles with 12 year old girl CNET News September 2003 CA Assembly Committee Looks into High Number of Music Piracy Complaints at State Schools RIAA September 2011 Default Judgment against Michelle Santangelo vacated RIAA seeks 513 in attorneys fees Recording Industry vs The People blog July 19 2007 RIAA Insists on Deposing Tanya Andersen s 10 year old daughter Recording Industry vs The People 23 March 2007 RIAA Drops its Case Against Tanya Andersen Recording Industry vs The People blog June 4 2007 Lawyer wants Goliath verdict against RIAA in abuse trial Tanya Andersen Sues RIAA for Malicious Prosecution in Oregon Recording Industry vs The People June 25 2007 RIAA Faces Serious Piracy Lawsuit Variety com August 30 2007 Woman Targets RIAA With Lawsuit dead link Forbes com August 29 2007 RIAA faces possible class action over suing the innocent Ars Technica August 17 2007 RIAA named in first class action p2pnet August 16 2007 Class Action Initiated Against RIAA Slashdot August 17 2007 For link to pdf file of amended complaint Tanya Andersen Brings Class Action Against RIAA Recording Industry vs The People blog August 16 2007 SONY v Crain Recording Industry vs The People blog January 2007 Pike amp Fischer Internet amp Law Regulation Fisher Ken July 4 2007 RIAA sued for using illegal investigatory practices Ars Technica RIAA Moves to Strike Copyright Misuse Affirmative Defense in UMG v Lindor Recording Industry vs The People blog August 29 2007 Record Company Collusion a Defense to RIAA Case Slashdot August 30 2007 Limewire counterclaim in Arista vs Limewire ilrweb com Lauria Peter February 27 2008 Infringement Artists Say They Want Their Music Site Dough New York Post Retrieved 2009 04 23 RIAA v Joel Tenenbaum Docket CyberOne Law in the Court of Public Opinion blog Law Harvard edu 17 U S C 504 a b Bangeman Eric 11 August 2008 Judge RIAA damages too high in innocent infringement case Ars Technica UMG v Lindor RIAALawsuites us UMG v Lindor November 9 2006 Decision pdf Borghese Matthew November 16 2006 RIAA Under Fire For 750 Lawsuits Over 70 Cent Songs BizReport com Archived from the original on 2007 02 07 McSherry Corynne 5 November 2010 Thomas Rasset Damage Award The Strange Unpredictable World of Copyright Damages Electronic Frontier Foundation Decision Upheld Forcing Woman To Pay 222 000 For Illegal Downloads Huffington Post March 18 2013 Archived from the original on 2016 03 04 Beckerman Ray 13 August 2006 Recording Industry vs The People EFF ACLU American Association of Law Libraries Public Citizen ACLU of Oklahoma Come to Aid of Deborah Foster File Amicus Brief in Support RIAA Opposes Motion For Leave to File Amicus Brief in Capitol v Foster Recording Industry vs The People blog August 28 2006 a b Judge Grants Debbie Foster s Attorneys Fees Motion in Capitol v Foster Recording Industry vs The People blog February 2007 Groklaw For the Cynics an Antidote The Order in Capitol v Foster www groklaw net Victory for RIAA Victim p2pnet net Archived 2007 02 10 at the Wayback Machine Bangeman Eric 7 February 2007 Victim of RIAA driftnet awarded attorneys fees Ars Technica Judge Awards 68 685 23 in Attorneys Fees Against RIAA in Capitol v Foster Recording Industry vs The People blog July 16 2007 Capitol Records v Debbie Foster RIAALawsuits us July 13 2006 Order and Decision Virgin Records v Tammie Marson RIAALawsuits us Elektra v Wilke RIAALawsuits us Rosen Hilary June 4 2006 For the Record for What It s Worth Huffington Post Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits Archived 2017 03 01 at the Wayback Machine The Wall Street Journal December 19 2008 Retrieved on 2009 01 08 RIAA Recording Industry Association of America Recording Industry Association of America Archived from the original on 2012 04 10 Retrieved 2012 04 30 Bhattacharjee S Lertwachara K Gopal R and Marsden J Impact of Legal Threats on Online Music Sharing Activity An Analysis of Music Industry Legal Actions 49 2006 Journal of Law and Economics 91 Stop the RIAA petition Archived 2008 07 06 at the Wayback Machine EFF RIAA Free FreeCulture org How to Not Get Sued For File Sharing Electronic Frontier Foundation Blankenhorn Dana August 2008 Spamigation and How to Fight It danablankenhorn com Accessed 08 25 2006 I sue dead people ARS Technica February 4 2005 Elektra v Schwartz RIAA Mischaracterizes Letter Received From AOL Slashdot slashdot org Index of Litigation Documents Referred to in Recording Industry vs The People Ray Beckerman riaalawsuits us Priority Records v Chan RIAA Must Get Guardian Ad Litem Appointed for Suit Against 13 Year Old Digital Music News 3 June 2006 Run Over by the RIAA Don t Tap the Glass Cassi Hunt MIT Tech April 4 2006 Volume 126 Number 15 Marie Lindor to Move for Summary Judgment Ty Rogers and Ray Beckerman Recording Industry vs The People blog February 3 2006 RIAA to grieving family We depose your children in 60 days August 12 2006 Ben Depoorter et al Copyright Backlash Southern California Law Review 2011 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title 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