Record Industry Still Pursuing File-Sharers

The U.S. music industry recently sued 531 more individuals for online copyright infringement through anonymous “John Doe” styled suits.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), continuing to cite digital piracy as a major cause of slumping CD sales for the third year in a row, announced that it filed five separate lawsuits against 531 users of undisclosed Internet Service Providers.

The trade group filed four similar suits against 532 illegal file-shares in January.

The latest pleadings were filed in federal courts in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Orlando and Trenton, New Jersey.

The RIAA is using the “John Doe” method, identifying song swappers by numerical Web addresses, because it has been unable to sue suspected individual song swappers by name since mid-December, when a federal appeals court sided with Verizon Communications and ruled that ISPs did not have to respond to subpoenas filed as a prelude to lawsuits requesting the names of users. See Recording Industry Association of America v. Verizon Internet Services, Inc., No. 03-7015 (D.C. Cir. Dec. 19, 2003).

Like the last round, the RIAA plans to discover swappers' names and locations through court-issued subpoenas.

The RIAA said it has begun the process of issuing subpoenas to learn the identities of 333 file-sharers targeted in the first round of John Doe suits filed in January, with the remaining batch pending before the judge.

The RIAA represents the world's big record labels such as Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Music, Bertelsmann AG's BMG, EMI Group Plc, Sony Corp's Sony Music and Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group.

“Legal online music services are delivering a high-quality, consumer-friendly experience, and they're attracting new fans,” says Cary Sherman, RIAA president. “But they shouldn't have to compete with businesses based on illegal downloading.”

In recent years, record labels and even musicians, such as Metallica and Sheryl Crow, have campaigned against peer-to-peer networks like Napster and KaZaA, claiming they have contributed to plummeting CD sales and cheated them out of royalties by letting people swap music for free.

But Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks U.S. music sales, has reported that U.S. album sales so far in 2004 are up 10.4% from the same period a year earlier. That continues a trend that saw 2003 sales post a slower decline for the first time in 3 years.

New Jersey Woman Fights Back

Michele Scimeca, of Rockaway Township, NJ, has filed a civil lawsuit accusing the U.S. recording industry of attempting to blackmail her when she was named as one of the 531 alleged infringers.

“Essentially they are saying, 'Pay a little now, or pay the full monty later,”' says her attorney, Bart Lombardo. “This really looks like extortion, and the facts fit under RICO.”

Scimeca filed her lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Newark, NJ, under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Statute (RICO).

Lombardo said in an interview that he was shocked by the tone of the letters the RIAA delivers with its notice of legal action. The letters warn the accused copyright pirate that their liability is clear, and refusal to settle could result in damages of as much as $150,000 per incident and that ignorance of the law is no excuse.

In December, the labels produced 41 pages of copyrighted songs from Pearl Jam, Korn, Godsmack and other artists, which they said were offered for illegal swapping over the KaZaA network by someone with the screen name “DrEeMeR,” according to a report in the New Jersey's The Star-Ledger.

Scimeca told the Star-Ledger that was the screen name used by her 13-year-old daughter, a high school freshman, for a school project. But the family's Optimum Online Internet account was registered to the mother, whose name was handed over by Cablevision.

Scimeca says at the time that she and her husband could not afford copyright penalties of as much as $150,000 per song, so she decided to fight back and hired Lombardo, who is working on contingency.

RIAA officials scoffed at the lawsuit, saying the letter is simply a notification that tells people they can settle without going to court.

Wire service reports contributed to this article.

The U.S. music industry recently sued 531 more individuals for online copyright infringement through anonymous “John Doe” styled suits.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), continuing to cite digital piracy as a major cause of slumping CD sales for the third year in a row, announced that it filed five separate lawsuits against 531 users of undisclosed Internet Service Providers.

The trade group filed four similar suits against 532 illegal file-shares in January.

The latest pleadings were filed in federal courts in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Orlando and Trenton, New Jersey.

The RIAA is using the “John Doe” method, identifying song swappers by numerical Web addresses, because it has been unable to sue suspected individual song swappers by name since mid-December, when a federal appeals court sided with Verizon Communications and ruled that ISPs did not have to respond to subpoenas filed as a prelude to lawsuits requesting the names of users. See Recording Industry Association of America v. Verizon Internet Services, Inc., No. 03-7015 (D.C. Cir. Dec. 19, 2003).

Like the last round, the RIAA plans to discover swappers' names and locations through court-issued subpoenas.

The RIAA said it has begun the process of issuing subpoenas to learn the identities of 333 file-sharers targeted in the first round of John Doe suits filed in January, with the remaining batch pending before the judge.

The RIAA represents the world's big record labels such as Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Music, Bertelsmann AG's BMG, EMI Group Plc, Sony Corp's Sony Music and Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group.

“Legal online music services are delivering a high-quality, consumer-friendly experience, and they're attracting new fans,” says Cary Sherman, RIAA president. “But they shouldn't have to compete with businesses based on illegal downloading.”

In recent years, record labels and even musicians, such as Metallica and Sheryl Crow, have campaigned against peer-to-peer networks like Napster and KaZaA, claiming they have contributed to plummeting CD sales and cheated them out of royalties by letting people swap music for free.

But Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks U.S. music sales, has reported that U.S. album sales so far in 2004 are up 10.4% from the same period a year earlier. That continues a trend that saw 2003 sales post a slower decline for the first time in 3 years.

New Jersey Woman Fights Back

Michele Scimeca, of Rockaway Township, NJ, has filed a civil lawsuit accusing the U.S. recording industry of attempting to blackmail her when she was named as one of the 531 alleged infringers.

“Essentially they are saying, 'Pay a little now, or pay the full monty later,”' says her attorney, Bart Lombardo. “This really looks like extortion, and the facts fit under RICO.”

Scimeca filed her lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Newark, NJ, under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Statute (RICO).

Lombardo said in an interview that he was shocked by the tone of the letters the RIAA delivers with its notice of legal action. The letters warn the accused copyright pirate that their liability is clear, and refusal to settle could result in damages of as much as $150,000 per incident and that ignorance of the law is no excuse.

In December, the labels produced 41 pages of copyrighted songs from Pearl Jam, Korn, Godsmack and other artists, which they said were offered for illegal swapping over the KaZaA network by someone with the screen name “DrEeMeR,” according to a report in the New Jersey's The Star-Ledger.

Scimeca told the Star-Ledger that was the screen name used by her 13-year-old daughter, a high school freshman, for a school project. But the family's Optimum Online Internet account was registered to the mother, whose name was handed over by Cablevision.

Scimeca says at the time that she and her husband could not afford copyright penalties of as much as $150,000 per song, so she decided to fight back and hired Lombardo, who is working on contingency.

RIAA officials scoffed at the lawsuit, saying the letter is simply a notification that tells people they can settle without going to court.

Wire service reports contributed to this article.