The group representing the U.S. recording industry said it has abandoned its policy of suing people for sharing songs. Hahaha! Fuck you RIAA!The move ends a controversial program that saw the Recording Industry Association of America sue about 35,000 people since 2003 for swapping songs online. Because of high legal costs for defenders, virtually all of those hit with lawsuits settled, on average for around $3,500. The association's legal costs, in the meantime, exceeded the settlement money it brought in.
The association said it stopped sending out new lawsuits and warnings in August, and then agreed with several leading U.S. Internet service providers (though without naming which ones) to notify alleged illegal file-sharers and cut off service if they failed to stop.
It credited the lawsuit campaign with raising awareness of piracy and keeping the number of illegal file-sharers in check while the legal market for digital music took off. Yeah, nice spin. With two weeks left in the year, legitimate sales of digital music tracks soared for the first time past the 1 billion mark, up 28% over all of last year.
"We're at a point where there's a sense of comfort that we can replace one form of deterrent with another form of deterrent," said RIAA Chairman Mitch Bainwol. "Filing lawsuits as a strategy to deal with a big problem was not our first choice five years ago." Sure...that's a very soft way of admitting defeat. Proof? The new notification program is also more efficient, he said, having sent out more notices in the few months since it started than in the five years of the lawsuit campaign. Yes, warning notices are worse than legal proceedings. "It's much easier to send notices than it is to file lawsuits," Bainwol said.
The group says it will still continue to litigate outstanding cases, most of which are in the pre-lawsuit warning stage, but some of which are before the courts.
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