RIAA’s cessation of lawsuits a stunt
The RIAA’s claim that it will stop suing private individuals for file sharing, as repeated in Thursday’s article “RIAA makes short term changes to legal tactics”, is somewhere between an outright lie and a fairytale. RIAA spokesperson Cara Duckworth claimed that the RIAA had not filed new lawsuits “for months” according to a statement she made via the magazine Wired’s website in December. According to a list compiled by the Web site, Recording Industry vs. the People, the RIAA filed at least 36 new lawsuits the same week she made that statement. Futhermore, the RIAA has claimed to various news agencies that it is giving up suing private individuals for file sharing in lieu if brokering an agreement with internet service providers to police their intellectual property rights. To date, no ISPs have confirmed that they have been approached by the RIAA about such an agreement according to the Digital Music News and the intellectual property watchdog group IP Watch.
No matter what the RIAA’s claims are, it has a long and continuing record of using their considerable financial resources to bully their customer base by misusing the American justice system to force people into a legal position where they don’t have the resources to adequately defend themselves. Via pre-settlement letters, the RIAA is able to extort thousands of dollars out of tens of thousands of people who are unable take on the large financial burden of a protracted legal defense. In many cases, the RIAA pursues legal action against private individuals without any credible evidence whatsoever. Very recently, the Wall Street Journal was able to confirm that the RIAA was forced to fire it’s primary investigative company, MediaSentry, for illegally investigating potential file sharers and failing to produce evidence that met forensic and legal standards. That is just one more example of how the RIAA’s legal campaign in build upon misinformation and lies.
Matthew Miller
graduate student, marine, earth and atmospheric sciences
