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Record industry sues 532 more file sharers { March 23 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=481687§ion=newshttp://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=481687§ion=news
Record industry sues 532 more file-sharers
Tue 23 March, 2004 19:59
By Sue Zeidler
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. music industry has forged ahead with its legal effort to stamp out online piracy by suing over 500 people for online copyright infringement, including 89 individuals using college networks.
Like 1,063 similar suits filed since January, the Recording Industry Association of America employed the "John Doe" litigation method because the names of the 532 infringers accused of illegally distributing copyrighted sound recordings on peer-to-peer services were not yet known.
The RIAA, which cites digital piracy as a big factor behind a three-year slump in CD sales, said on Tuesday individuals at 21 universities in Arizona, California, Colorado, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington, D.C., and Wisconsin were included.
Lawsuits against 443 illegal file sharers using commercial Internet Service Providers were brought in California, Colorado, Missouri, Texas and Virginia, the RIAA said.
The RIAA identified song swappers by numerical Internet addresses only because it has been unable to sue suspected pirates by name since December, when an appeals court sided with Verizon Communications by ruling that ISPs did not have to respond to subpoenas filed as a prelude to lawsuits requesting names of users.
As in the earlier rounds, the RIAA plans to discover swappers' names and locations through court-issued subpoenas.
The RIAA represents the world's big record labels like Time Warner's Warner Music, Bertelsmann's BMG, EMI Group Plc, Sony Music and Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group.
SETTLEMENTS AVERAGE $3,000
The RIAA has filed 1,977 lawsuits altogether since September, settling about 408 cases for about $3,000 (1,624 pounds) each.
"It's important for everyone to understand that no one is immune from the consequences of illegally 'sharing' music files on P2P networks," said Cary Sherman, president, RIAA.
"Piracy, which is particularly rampant on college campuses, continues to hurt retailers, musicians, producers, record labels and the thousands of less-celebrated individuals involved in making music," said Sherman.
Officials for several of the universities involved, including George Washington University, Loyola Marymount University. University of Southern California and Stanford University had no immediate comment.
Several commercial online music services like Napster, the once-renegade song-swap service relaunched as a legal business by parent company Roxio in October 2003, are increasingly marketing themselves to colleges and universities.
The universities, in turn, are embracing the commercial services as a way to lessen legal risks for students and stress on their own networks caused by illegal music-swapping.
The RIAA said the first round of "John Doe" suits filed in January was proceeding, with all four federal courts granting the music industry's request to issue subpoenas to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to learn the identities of illegal file sharers.
An RIAA spokeswoman said two individuals from that round of suits have already settled with the RIAA.
For the second round of "John Doe" suits brought in February, courts in Georgia and New Jersey have approved the RIAA's motion to begin issuing subpoenas, while a Florida court has requested additional briefing and a Philadelphia court ordered the RIAA to file individual complaints for each illegal file sharer, rather than bundling them.
The RIAA said it has asked the Philadelphia court to reconsider that decision.
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