RIAA Sues More U.S. File-Sharers As Study Shows Infringement in Decline

Employing its 'John Doe' litigation strategy again, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sued another group of anonymous infringers ' this time 477 people ' accused of illegally distributing copyrighted sound recordings on peer-to-peer file sharing services.

Once the suits are filed, the RIAA plans to discover swappers' names and locations through court-issued subpoenas. The music industry organization is again targeting file sharers using commercial Internet service providers (ISPs) as well as 69 people at 14 universities, including Brown, Emory and Princeton.

Back in March, the RIAA suits targeted 89 people using college networks. Since September, the RIAA has filed 2,454 lawsuits, including suits filed before implementing the “John Doe” litigation protocol. In total, the RIAA has settled 437 cases for about $3000 each.

Study Validates Suits

A recent telephone survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project showed the number of people who say they download music, both legally and otherwise, swelled to 23 million from 18 million since the group's last survey in December.

However, driven largely by fears of copyright lawsuits, more than 17 million Americans, or 14% of adult Internet users, have stopped downloading music over the Internet, according to the survey. In fact, a third of the former downloaders ' nearly 6 million ' say they stopped because of the highly publicized lawsuits filed by the RIAA.

The survey found that men and users ages 18-29 were the ones most likely to stop.

The study did not distinguish between music downloaded illegally and songs bought through authorized sites such as iTunes. Seventeen percent of the current downloaders did say they are using paid services, though not necessarily as their exclusive source of online music.

Among those who have never downloaded music, three in five users ' women more likely than men ' said the lawsuits deterred them from ever engaging in illegal downloading.

Even many of those still downloading music ' 38% ' say they are doing so less frequently because of the lawsuits.

For more, visit the Pew Internet & American Life Project Web site at www.pewinternet.org.

Employing its 'John Doe' litigation strategy again, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sued another group of anonymous infringers ' this time 477 people ' accused of illegally distributing copyrighted sound recordings on peer-to-peer file sharing services.

Once the suits are filed, the RIAA plans to discover swappers' names and locations through court-issued subpoenas. The music industry organization is again targeting file sharers using commercial Internet service providers (ISPs) as well as 69 people at 14 universities, including Brown, Emory and Princeton.

Back in March, the RIAA suits targeted 89 people using college networks. Since September, the RIAA has filed 2,454 lawsuits, including suits filed before implementing the “John Doe” litigation protocol. In total, the RIAA has settled 437 cases for about $3000 each.

Study Validates Suits

A recent telephone survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project showed the number of people who say they download music, both legally and otherwise, swelled to 23 million from 18 million since the group's last survey in December.

However, driven largely by fears of copyright lawsuits, more than 17 million Americans, or 14% of adult Internet users, have stopped downloading music over the Internet, according to the survey. In fact, a third of the former downloaders ' nearly 6 million ' say they stopped because of the highly publicized lawsuits filed by the RIAA.

The survey found that men and users ages 18-29 were the ones most likely to stop.

The study did not distinguish between music downloaded illegally and songs bought through authorized sites such as iTunes. Seventeen percent of the current downloaders did say they are using paid services, though not necessarily as their exclusive source of online music.

Among those who have never downloaded music, three in five users ' women more likely than men ' said the lawsuits deterred them from ever engaging in illegal downloading.

Even many of those still downloading music ' 38% ' say they are doing so less frequently because of the lawsuits.

For more, visit the Pew Internet & American Life Project Web site at www.pewinternet.org.