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From the Associated Press in the New York Times: "The
music industry pledged to begin steps Thursday
to file lawsuits against hundreds of individual
computer users who illegally share music files on the
Internet, an aggressive gamble to cripple online piracy by suing
some of music's biggest fans.
"The Recording
Industry Association of America, citing significant sales
declines, said it would
begin searching Internet file-sharing networks Thursday to identify
music fans who offer 'substantial' collections of MP3 song files
for downloading...
"The RIAA expects to file at
least several hundred lawsuits seeking financial damages
within eight to 10 weeks.
"RIAA President Cary Sherman
[pictured left] said that after Thursday, tens of millions of Internet
users of popular file-sharing software will be exposing themselves
to 'the real risk of having to face the music.'..
 "Critics
accused the RIAA of resorting to heavy-handed tactics likely
to alienate millions of music fans.
"'This latest effort really indicates the recording
industry has lost touch with reality completely,' said Fred
von Lohmann, a  lawyer
for the Electronic
Frontier Foundation. 'Today they have declared war on the
American consumer.'"
Read this AP story in today's New York Times, or online
here.
From USA Today: "When Karol Franks, a mother
of two teens in Pasadena, Calif., heard Wednesday that the music
industry
was threatening to sue average folks who swap music online... she
posed a question: 'How can there be a lawsuit
when there are tens of thousands of people who use file-sharing
programs?'
"Because the Recording
Industry Association of America, flush with recent court
wins in its fight against digital piracy, can now move from suing
the companies that facilitate the free swapping of music files to
targeting some of the 57 million computers
users who regularly swap...
"Record labels, suffering a drop of 20% in album sales
since 2000 according to unreleased Nielsen SoundScan figures, feel
they need to take action...
"Potential fines are
a whopping $150,000 a song, which would make a person
who shares as few as 10 songs online
accountable for $1.5 million.
"Others see the offensive against fans as another
wrongheaded move by an industry that could have handled
the situation with vision years ago.
"Gale Daikoku, retail analyst with market research
firm GartnerG2... calls this kind of assault on a customer base
'unprecedented.' Theft in the $2.7 trillion retail industry is 2%
of sales, she says, but stores like Macy's and Nordstrom 'focus
on making the customer experience better and having people
return to the stores, not on chasing them away.'"
Read this story in today's issue of USA Today, or
online here.
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The record industry is using a "carrot-and-stick"
approach in the world of digital music that, I've got to admit,
I feel is starting to work.
On the "stick" side of the equation, some
might say they're being heavy-handed if they're threatening
to sue consumers for millions of dollars... but, on the other
hand, is there a non-heavy-handed way to get across the
message that something is illegal?
On the "carrot" side, obviously the success
of Apple's iTunes story is delivering one message that there
are cool and legal ways to enjoy music
on the Internet. And hopefully Internet
radio is playing a valuable role on this side of
the equation as well. -- KH
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