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LOS ANGELES — A number of music downloaders to the tune of 261 were slapped with lawsuits Monday from a recording industry that's sick and tired of having songs illegally downloaded and shared over the World Wide Web.
The lawsuits, which did not come as a surprise, highlight the industry's increasing aggressiveness in cracking down on the trading of pirated music files over file-sharing networks such as Kazaa (search). The overarching goal of the recording industry is to protect copyrighted material — a goal proving more difficult with the proliferation of the Internet.
Kazaa facilitates what is called peer-to-peer (P2P) networking (search), which allows the widespread distribution of content via the computer. Until now, the RIAA had focused its legal threats on actual P2P sites.
Monday's lawsuits were filed in federal courts around the country by the Recording Industry Association of America (search) on behalf of its members, which include Universal Music Group, BMG, EMI, Sony Music and Warner Music. More waves of lawsuits were expected, and the total could eventually reach the thousands.
"Nobody likes playing the heavy and having to resort to litigation," RIAA president Cary Sherman said in a statement. "But when your product is being regularly stolen, there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action."
The music industry says file sharing is a violation of copyright laws and blames the practice for a 31 percent decline in compact disc music sales in the last three years. The individuals sued Monday were sharing, on average, more than 1,000 songs each, the group said.
Recording industry critics and consumers, however, have argued that it's because of the high CD prices that sales have dropped.
An estimated 60 million Americans participate in file-sharing networks. Most Net users know trading music is illegal, but the practice has flourished in recent years since copyright statutes have been hard to keep up with the pace of technology.
When sharing songs, Web surfers basically allow other Internet users remote access to their hard drives. It's the actual sharers the RIAA went after, not users who simply copied songs from the Internet but didn't share their collection of tunes with others.
The site that brought the issue into the spotlight several years ago was Napster, the P2P site created by a college dropout that allowed users to share and download hundreds of thousands of songs.
That site, which had a central server, is now defunct. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' decision ruled against the company in 2001, saying the site allowed "vicarious [and] contributory copyright infringement."
The recording industry also announced an amnesty program for people who admit they illegally share music online and promise to delete any illegally downloaded music and not participate in illegal file trading again.
Individuals targeted by Monday's lawsuits would be ineligible.
"Nobody gets a free pass here," Sherman said, calling the amnesty offer "our version of an olive branch."
Some defense lawyers have objected to the amnesty provisions, warning that non-member song publishers and other organizations won't be constrained by the RIAA's promise not to sue. People who agree not to share files could be surrendering future rights if that use is declared legal.
The RIAA didn't say which Internet users it was suing or where they live. Federal courthouses in Boston and elsewhere reported receiving some lawsuits; court officials were assigning them to judges.
The group named as the defendant in each lawsuit the person who paid for the household Internet account. Lawyers said that in some states, such as California, parents are not explicitly liable for copyright infringement by minor children.
"We think it's a very good thing for parents to be aware of what their 14-year-old kids are doing," Sherman said.
The announcement came just weeks after U.S. appeals court rulings requiring Internet providers to readily identify subscribers suspected of illegally sharing music and movie files.
Earlier, the RIAA sued four college students it accused of making thousands of songs available for illegal downloading on campus networks. The group settled those cases for $12,500 to $17,000 each.
Monday's lawsuits resulted from subpoenas sent to Internet service providers (ISPs) and others seeking to identify roughly 1,600 people the group believes engaged in illegal music sharing.
Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs' Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has promised hearings on the industry's use of copyright subpoenas to track downloaders.
Coleman has been concerned that the campaign could ensnare innocent people, such as parents and grandparents whose children and grandchildren are using their computers to download music. Plus, some downloaders might not know they are breaking the law, he said.
U.S. copyright laws allow for damages of $750 to $150,000 for each song offered illegally on a person's computer, but the RIAA said it would be open to settlement proposals.
The president of P2P service Grokster (search), which is fighting a legal battle of its own with the recording industry, told Reuters that the tactic would only waste money and alienate music fans.
"I feel sort of like the Russians fighting Napoleon," Grokster President Wayne Rosso told Reuters.
In addition to Grokster and Kazaa, defendants used the Gnutella, Blubster and iMesh networks, Sherman said.
In June, the industry announced that it would target hundreds of individual computer users who illegally share music files, hoping to cripple online piracy by suing fans.
It recently served subpoenas on at least 10 universities to get them to identify individual file-swappers. In response, many universities - hotbeds for music download activity — are now educating students on illegal file sharing and have made it more difficult for students to share music files over campus computer systems.
Some universities flat-out refused to give up the names of their student song-swappers.
A federal court in Massachusetts, for example, last month rejected several music industry subpoenas demanding that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston College reveal the identities of students who allegedly shared copyrighted music online.
ISPs argue that handing over the identities of downloaders is burdensome and invades their subscribers' privacy.
The RIAA also said it already has negotiated $3,000 settlements with fewer than 10 Internet users who learned they might be sued after the RIAA sent copyright subpoenas to their ISPs. Sherman predicted more settlements after Monday, but the price to settle for anyone already named in a lawsuit will be higher.
"Now that lawsuits are actually being filed and people realize this is for real, we would expect many more to come forward and we would welcome that," Sherman said.
The RIAA has sent more than 1,500 subpoenas to Internet providers nationwide; Internet users overseas haven't been targeted. The lawsuits were timed to the return to college of students.
Sherman predicted "subsequent waves of litigation" determined by "how many lawsuits we can manage at any one time." He said money earned from civil penalties or settlements would pay for the RIAA's anti-piracy campaign.
The lawsuits, which did not come as a surprise, highlight the industry's increasing aggressiveness in cracking down on the trading of pirated music files over file-sharing networks such as Kazaa (search). The overarching goal of the recording industry is to protect copyrighted material — a goal proving more difficult with the proliferation of the Internet.
Kazaa facilitates what is called peer-to-peer (P2P) networking (search), which allows the widespread distribution of content via the computer. Until now, the RIAA had focused its legal threats on actual P2P sites.
Monday's lawsuits were filed in federal courts around the country by the Recording Industry Association of America (search) on behalf of its members, which include Universal Music Group, BMG, EMI, Sony Music and Warner Music. More waves of lawsuits were expected, and the total could eventually reach the thousands.
"Nobody likes playing the heavy and having to resort to litigation," RIAA president Cary Sherman said in a statement. "But when your product is being regularly stolen, there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action."
The music industry says file sharing is a violation of copyright laws and blames the practice for a 31 percent decline in compact disc music sales in the last three years. The individuals sued Monday were sharing, on average, more than 1,000 songs each, the group said.
Recording industry critics and consumers, however, have argued that it's because of the high CD prices that sales have dropped.
An estimated 60 million Americans participate in file-sharing networks. Most Net users know trading music is illegal, but the practice has flourished in recent years since copyright statutes have been hard to keep up with the pace of technology.
When sharing songs, Web surfers basically allow other Internet users remote access to their hard drives. It's the actual sharers the RIAA went after, not users who simply copied songs from the Internet but didn't share their collection of tunes with others.
The site that brought the issue into the spotlight several years ago was Napster, the P2P site created by a college dropout that allowed users to share and download hundreds of thousands of songs.
That site, which had a central server, is now defunct. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' decision ruled against the company in 2001, saying the site allowed "vicarious [and] contributory copyright infringement."
The recording industry also announced an amnesty program for people who admit they illegally share music online and promise to delete any illegally downloaded music and not participate in illegal file trading again.
Individuals targeted by Monday's lawsuits would be ineligible.
"Nobody gets a free pass here," Sherman said, calling the amnesty offer "our version of an olive branch."
Some defense lawyers have objected to the amnesty provisions, warning that non-member song publishers and other organizations won't be constrained by the RIAA's promise not to sue. People who agree not to share files could be surrendering future rights if that use is declared legal.
The RIAA didn't say which Internet users it was suing or where they live. Federal courthouses in Boston and elsewhere reported receiving some lawsuits; court officials were assigning them to judges.
The group named as the defendant in each lawsuit the person who paid for the household Internet account. Lawyers said that in some states, such as California, parents are not explicitly liable for copyright infringement by minor children.
"We think it's a very good thing for parents to be aware of what their 14-year-old kids are doing," Sherman said.
The announcement came just weeks after U.S. appeals court rulings requiring Internet providers to readily identify subscribers suspected of illegally sharing music and movie files.
Earlier, the RIAA sued four college students it accused of making thousands of songs available for illegal downloading on campus networks. The group settled those cases for $12,500 to $17,000 each.
Monday's lawsuits resulted from subpoenas sent to Internet service providers (ISPs) and others seeking to identify roughly 1,600 people the group believes engaged in illegal music sharing.
Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs' Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has promised hearings on the industry's use of copyright subpoenas to track downloaders.
Coleman has been concerned that the campaign could ensnare innocent people, such as parents and grandparents whose children and grandchildren are using their computers to download music. Plus, some downloaders might not know they are breaking the law, he said.
U.S. copyright laws allow for damages of $750 to $150,000 for each song offered illegally on a person's computer, but the RIAA said it would be open to settlement proposals.
The president of P2P service Grokster (search), which is fighting a legal battle of its own with the recording industry, told Reuters that the tactic would only waste money and alienate music fans.
"I feel sort of like the Russians fighting Napoleon," Grokster President Wayne Rosso told Reuters.
In addition to Grokster and Kazaa, defendants used the Gnutella, Blubster and iMesh networks, Sherman said.
In June, the industry announced that it would target hundreds of individual computer users who illegally share music files, hoping to cripple online piracy by suing fans.
It recently served subpoenas on at least 10 universities to get them to identify individual file-swappers. In response, many universities - hotbeds for music download activity — are now educating students on illegal file sharing and have made it more difficult for students to share music files over campus computer systems.
Some universities flat-out refused to give up the names of their student song-swappers.
A federal court in Massachusetts, for example, last month rejected several music industry subpoenas demanding that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston College reveal the identities of students who allegedly shared copyrighted music online.
ISPs argue that handing over the identities of downloaders is burdensome and invades their subscribers' privacy.
The RIAA also said it already has negotiated $3,000 settlements with fewer than 10 Internet users who learned they might be sued after the RIAA sent copyright subpoenas to their ISPs. Sherman predicted more settlements after Monday, but the price to settle for anyone already named in a lawsuit will be higher.
"Now that lawsuits are actually being filed and people realize this is for real, we would expect many more to come forward and we would welcome that," Sherman said.
The RIAA has sent more than 1,500 subpoenas to Internet providers nationwide; Internet users overseas haven't been targeted. The lawsuits were timed to the return to college of students.
Sherman predicted "subsequent waves of litigation" determined by "how many lawsuits we can manage at any one time." He said money earned from civil penalties or settlements would pay for the RIAA's anti-piracy campaign.