Friday, March 13, 2009

RIAA Resumes Lawsuits

A new piece up at Ars Technica entitled "Hypocrisy or necessity? RIAA continues filing lawsuits" has a very interesting take on the decision by the Recording Industry Association of America to restart its campaign of lawsuits against online copyright infringers even after a promise to end the litigation.

As it turns out, the issue is far more complex than it may intially appear but a new lawsuit against a Nebraska man accused of sharing nine songs seems pretty cut-and-dry. Though the mass lawsuits have stopped in part, lawsuit leftovers are still trickling in from almost two years ago and it seems to be the RIAA's policy to push forward with them as they do come in. It seems that if the case was initiated before the summer of 2008, it will move forward. RIAA spokesperson Jonathan Lamy had the following to say to Ars Technica:
"We're obviously pleased to transition to a new program going forward but that doesn't mean we can give a free pass to those who downloaded music illegally in the past. How fair would it be to the thousands of individuals who took responsibility for their actions and settled their case while others are let off the hook? We're still in the business of deterrence and it must be credible."
They can always sound like dicks, can't they? Nate Anderson has all of the details and it's certainly worth a read.

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