RIAA sues 532 students

Found on The Inquirer on Tuesday, 23 March 2004
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More than 532 students at 21 American universities have been sued by the RIAA which claims they were illegally sharing digital music files over the Internet.

It is the first time that the RIAA has gone for students swapping individual files. Last year four students who were at the centre of a file swapping hub were targeted.

Other suits were issued against 443 people using commercial Internet access providers were also filed in California, Colorado, Missouri, Texas and Virginia.

The RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a statement: "We are sending a clear message that downloading or 'sharing' music from a peer-to-peer network without authorisation is illegal, it can have consequences and it undermines the creative future of music itself."

However, it is not all clear cut. The RIAA has to find out who the people they are suing actually are. It will take time for the RIAA to work through the courts to force various university administrators to identify who belongs to what IP address.

Sharing undermines the creative future of music? Then why did EMI tried to ban the Grey Album from DJ Danger Mouse? It sure was creative and got lots of positive comments from various sides. RIAA just keeps shooting itself in the foot by sueing customers (yes, customers, because according to several surveys filesharing increases sales).