This is so stupid. The whole catching the people in the act thing has got way too many holes in it. Look at all the people that are obviously being porked by the RIAA that are obviously not involved at all in the music swapping dealie. Really, how many 70 year old dudes are out there downloading Little Kims How many licks song......honestly. The RIAA should be sued by everyone that ownes a computer for invasion of privacy.

Well the RIAA has a point, way to many music is being spread over the internet. But the way they handly the case is a hole other question. Indeed al the lawsuits being filled now should be considerd illegal(IMO).

The music industry isn't the only industry suffering because of illegal activitie. I refer to all the illegal software, downloading a crack or serial isn't really hard.

On the other hand the music industry are the responseble for the masive illegal downloading of music. Last time I bougth a cd i had to pay 20EUR for a single with 2 songs on it. I say bring down the prices and people will start buying cd's again.

Greets Crazy,

This is crap RIAA cannot sue everyone in the planet who has anything that is pirated on their computers. I read some where that it would take over 1000 years to sue everyone who has pirated software or games or music. I can't seem to remember where I read it though. For the people who get sued and stop pirating stuff others will fill the slot.

They don't need to sue everyone, just enough to scare you. If your next door neighbor was sued by them tomorrow, I'll bet most of you would be wiping your harddrives by nightfall.

BTW, how many of these cases have gone to trial? Last I heard it was 0. RIAA is basically extorting money from these poor souls. Its cheaper to pay them the settlement than it is to hire a lawyer.
Personally, I'm waiting for them to sue someone who happens to actually own a copy of everything they have downloaded, on vinyl and 8track, and who has a friend who is a lawyer, or just has the money to blow on a lawyer, just to knock RIAA down a few notches.

they sued a 77 yr old man that doesn't even have a computer hooked up to the internet. accused him of DLing 1000's of songs. come on now RIAA, you can't be wrong this often if you're gonna go after people in this manner. besides, you're pissing off your fans. it's making them angry. Britney's last cd flopped compared to her first releases. why? b/c everyone's caught on to the crap that gets released and it's old. you gotta change or die off.

That would be sweet to hear (the part about sueing someone who has all the original copies of their "pirated" files). But up here in Ontario,Can. they have begun to sell certain cds for much lower prices than usual, mostly in the 12 -14 dollar range. Names like Alicia Keys, Blink 182 and other entertainers who have recent albums being released or already released have albums at those prices to draw consumers to buy. I believe south of the border it's the same deal at Best Buy.

Who knows, maybe these lawsuits are bringing down the sales of the industry since there are reports that P2P sharing helps sell cds and gives revenue to musicians and other entertainers who would never normally be noticed or heard of due to the conglomeration of the industries record companies.

I've always been curious about something. I live in Australia. If I am downloading from file sharing software that uses servers based in the US am I still liable for prosecution?

The Kazaa domain and their servers are owned by a resident of Sydney, Australia, so Kazaa is based in Australia. And there have been lawsuits against ISPs for "profiting from file-sharing" in Australia ( http://www.lawandtax-news.com/asp/story.asp?storyname=13809) but the RIAA equivalent or the anti-file-sharing conglomerates in Australia don't seem too interested in going after users at the moment. Maybe due to your laws or maybe waiting for the RIAA's signal .

Seems RIAA has a new view on music piracy
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/12/10/0123244

I'm getting a strange image of men in kevlar busting in on several kids trying to stuff CDs in the microwave.