Peer To Peer Lawsuit Updates 9-12-03!

Their recent lawsuit actions against 261 users of peer-to-peer software to share their MP3s with other people are putting the music industry in trouble as the RIAA turned up the volume on making examples of people who share copyrighted music from the big five labels with other people.

A backlash is arising as buyers of music are spending their money on other things, while losing even more CD buyers due to a boycott-riaa.com campaign as fed-up CD buyers are pledging to stop buying all music.

The record companies are still reeling after a drop of over 30 percent of CD sales, mostly due to people getting music for free and not considering purchasing a CD Audio copy, while failing to embrace digital distribution methods as a way for fans to download and purchase the music.

According to the press, the Recording Industry Association of America said it settled the first of the suits for $2,000. The defendant was Sylvia Torres, the mother of 12-year-old Brianna Lahara of New York, who was accused of downloading more than 1,000 songs from Kazaa. Um, should this be uploading, as the RIAA is not targeting downloaders.

The New York Post, as well as other news sources, reported that Brianna Lahara, a 12-year old girl from New York, had thought her downloading was legal because her mother had paid $29.99 for the KaZaA Plus software.

A few days later, Several Internet music services and a disc jockey have offered to reimburse a New York woman who paid $2,000 to settle charges that her 12-year-old daughter illegally copied music online. P2P United, a coalition of "peer-to-peer" song-swapping networks, said on Thursday it was trying to locate Sylvia Torres so it could pay the legal settlement she reached with the Recording Industry Association of America on Tuesday. Rochester, New York radio disc jockey Brother Wease also offered to pay Torres' legal bill, and online music retailer MusicRebellion.com said it would allow Torres' daughter, Brianna Lahara, to download $2,000 worth of free music from its industry-sanctioned site. Lahara, a Manhattan honor student who offered Madonna's "Material Girl" and some 1,000 other songs through Kazaa, has emerged as something of a poster girl for those who denounce the RIAA's legal campaign as heavy-handed.

"Out of all the millions of people who have downloaded, some girl in a housing project in New York City has got to come up with two grand?" said Wease, who offered to help through his charitable children's fund.

"I just feel that these people are bullies," said Grokster President Wayne Rosso, a member of the P2P United trade group, which offered to pay Torres' bill. "They're like the show-business version of the Taliban."

Rosso said the industry should try to work out a solution with Grokster and other peer-to-peer networks so record labels can be paid for the billions of songs downloaded monthly. One solution could be a flat, per-song royalty rate similar to that paid by radio stations and Webcasters, he said. Traffic has remained steady on peer-to-peer networks since the lawsuits were filed, officials at the networks said.

During a Senate Judiciary Hearing Tuesday, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., alluded to whether the industry wasn't going too far while questioning Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America. "Are you headed to junior high schools to round up the usual suspects?" Durbin asked Sherman.

Sherman told Durbin the industry is merely trying to get the message across that sharing music is illegal and that people may be caught. "Yes, there are going to be some kids caught in this, but you'd be surprised at how many adults are engaged in this activity," Sherman said.

The accounts of those sued bolstered the view that music fans of every ilk have taken to downloading music directly to their computers, not to mention being able to do so for free, as a preferred method of getting their music.

"The real hope here is that people will return to the record store," said Eric Garland, CEO of BigCampagne LLC, which tracks peer-to-peer Internet trends. "The biggest question is whether singling out a handful of copyright infringers will invigorate business or drive file-sharing further underground, further out of reach."

There are signs some people have stopped file-sharing since June, when the RIAA announced its lawsuit campaign, and also have moved to other file-swapping networks perceived to be safer than the market leader, Kazaa.

Just because a person stops file-sharing does not mean they will start buying CDs and generating revenue for the industry, said Josh Bernoff, an analyst with Forrester Research, Inc. "Many of these individuals have gotten out of the habit of buying CDs," Bernoff said. "They think CDs are too expensive, they only want a couple of tracks on the CD."

While the industry has begun to warm up to paid music download services, such as Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store and Buy.com's BuyMusic.com., no service has emerged as a clear alternative to the file-sharing services' selection.

"You're not going to see legitimate services rise up to replace the rapid decline we've seen in CD sales," said Lee Black, senior analyst with Jupiter Research. "We'll continue to see a drop in the CD market."

Bernoff said consumers already think so little of the music companies that the lawsuits likely won't make much of a difference, adds the AP story.

"The industry has been backed into a corner, and their image is so bad, the lawsuits are not going to be much of a problem," he said.

RIAA is sued over Amnesty Offer 9-12-03!

From boycott-riaa.com:

A California man says the RIAA's so-called Clean Slate program is "hollow and deceptive".

Eric Parke is suing the association, saying its offer is designed to get people to incriminate themselves and provide the RIAA "and others" with "admissions" through which they could land in court, in spite of having signed the RIAA affidavit.

Parke, who's never downloaded music, "decided he'd go ahead and step forward and be brave enough to put his name on this in the public interest," says his lawyer, Ira Rothken.

Far from getting people off the hook, the so-called Amnesty offer is meant to deceive them through misleadingly worded press releases, program descriptions, and a "deceptively ambiguous 'Clean Slate Program Affidavit designed to be executed by individuals who have been fraudulently induced to admit illegal wrongdoing by RIAA’s empty promises of 'amnesty'," says Parke in a court document filed by Rothken, a San Rafael attorney.

"When you have a situation when the general public, including sophisticated major newspapers, get it wrong and are reporting the RIAA is promising not to sue in return for filing these admissions of guilt, that on its face means you have a deceoptive business practice," Rothken told us.

"The RIAA’s assurances of 'amnesty' for complying with its 'Clean Slate Program' are hollow and deceptive, and provide members of the general public with no real legally binding assurance that those individuals who are induced by the RIAA’s empty promises to admit activity objectionable to the RIAA, its members, or other recording companies, will be free from later prosecution by the government or lawsuit by Copyright owners for the very copyright infringement admitted under the 'Amnesty' program," says the court paper, going on.

"The RIAA describes the program as 'Clean Slate' but yet does not promise to destroy any data or evidence collected on members of the general public who submit affidavits under the 'program' leaving the 'slate' anything but 'clean' for those Copyright owners or Government prosecutors who subpoena such information from the RIAA. This lawsuit seeks a remedy to stop the RIAA from engaging in unlawful, misleading, and fraudulent business practices including advertising an 'Amnesty Program' that does not provide real amnesty from lawsuit and a 'Clean Slate Program' that does not provide a real 'clean slate'."

More File Sharing Lawsuit News 9-10-2003!

Today in RAIN, we have excerpts from the RIAA press release, as well as from analysis and reaction articles from around the country.

Read more in today's issue of "RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter," at http://www.kurthanson.com

LOS ANGELES, Sep 08, 2003 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- The U.S. music industry Monday filed lawsuits against 261 people, accusing them of violating copyright laws by swapping online music files.

The lawsuits were filed in various federal courts across the nation by the recording Industry Association of America.

RIAA President Cary Sherman told the New York Times thousands more such complaints may be filed during the coming months.

Said Sherman: "Nobody likes playing the heavy and having to resort to litigation. But when your product is being regularly stolen, there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action.

"We simply cannot allow online piracy to continue destroying the livelihoods of artists, musicians, songwriters, retailers and everyone in the music industry."

The recording industry blames the practice for a 25 percent drop in sales of CD's since 1999. Under copyright law, the group can be awarded damages of $750 to $150,000 for ...

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The recording industry has launched a sweeping effort to identify and shut down individual song swappers, making good on recent threats to expand its legal battle against copyright theft. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has now issued more than 911 subpoenas to Internet service providers across the United States, trying to get the names of people still offering music on file-sharing networks such as KaZaA and Grokster. "Tech Live" brings you the RIAA Hit List, the user names of file traders targeted in the recording industry subpoenas. Read subpoenas

Virgin Megastores said on Monday it will turn to the Internet to resuscitate demand for the downtrodden music single by introducing Europe's cheapest music download service yet. Sales of music singles have been in a tailspin recently. Music company executives blame the rise of online file-trading sites such as Limewire and iMesh where new tracks become available for free as soon as they hit the radio airwaves (read Reuters) here!