Saturday, December 20, 2008

FANTASTIC NEWS... maybe

It is reported that the RIAA are abandoning their mass lawsuit campaign against file sharers in the United States with suggestions that ISPs will be cooperating with them to provide warning notices. Since the litigation campaign commenced over 35,000 people have received letters of demand for payment of damages with the threat of litigation for illegally sharing music. All suits that have been commenced will be continued. It will be interesting to see what 'cooperating with ISPs actually means' - if that means poor quality evidence is used to disconnect accounts it is questionable whether this is a step forward or not.

Further Reading
ABC, US Music Industry Abandons Mass Piracy Lawsuits (20 December 2008) <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/20/2451897.htm?section=justin> at 20 December 2008

CNet News, RIAA President: No talk of blakclisting file sharers (19 December 2008) <http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10127313-93.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1> at 20 December 2008

Wall Street Journal, Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits (19 Decemebr 2008) <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122966038836021137.html> at 20 December 2008

Digital Music News, Developing - Major Lables Endign Lawsuits Against Individuals (19 December 2008) <http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/121908riaa/view> at 20 December 2008

Slyck, RIAA Drops Lawsuit Campaign – Mostly (19 December 2008) <http://www.slyck.com/story1812_RIAA_Drops_Lawsuit_Campaign_Mostly> at 20 December 2008

ZeroPaid, RIAA to Quit Suing File-Sharers, Wants ISPs to Disconnect Instead (19 December 2008) <http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9907/RIAA+to+Quit+Suing+File-Sharers%2C+Wants+ISPs+to+Disconnect+Instead> at 20 December 2008

EFF Deeplinks, RIAA v. The People Turns from Lawsuits to 3 Strikes (19 December 2008) <http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/12/riaa-v-people-turns-lawsuits-3-strikes> at 20 December 2008

ArsTechnica, No more lawsuits: ISPs (19 December 2008) <http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081219-no-more-lawsuits-isps-to-work-with-riaa-cut-off-p2p-users.html> at 20 December 2008

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