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WSJ – RIAA to Abandon Mass Lawsuits?

THe RIAA is claiming to be ready for a change of strategy, trading the hammer it has been using to sue individual file sharers – for kind of a hired gun. I think the strategy the RIAA is outlining is better than their previous position, though not the ultimate solution that I think we will end up with. Nevertheless, this is movement in the right direction.

“The decision represents an abrupt shift of strategy for the industry, which has opened legal proceedings against about 35,000 people since 2003. The legal offensive did little to stem the tide of illegally downloaded music and it created a public-relations disaster for the record industry, whose lawsuits targeted, among others, several single mothers, a dead person and a 13-year-old girl.

The RIAA now plans to try an approach that relies on the cooperation of Internet-service providers. The trade group said it has hashed out preliminary agreements with major ISPs under which it will send a series of emails to the provider when it finds a provider’s customers making music available online for others to take.”

Number one – lets see if this actually happens, and

Number two – lets hope the ISPs will see first-hand the value in obtaining blanket licenses to permit the trading of music files online, rather than becoming the hired thug of the music industry…

Read the whole Wall Street Journal article here.

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  1. Maths says:

    Ray Beckerman has pointed out that the a significant claim in the article is false where it states “The group stopped filing mass lawsuits early this fall.”
    Ray has investigated and outlined a whole series of recent cases filed by the RIAA here: http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html#1104859189661357526
    This could well be RIAA spin, and based on their recent track record, unless I see tangible actions I don’t buy it and would tend to believe that this is more likely, at most just a switch from the threat of “death by painful hanging” to “death by painless lethal injection”.

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