Over 250 file swappers sued by RIAA

Lasse Penttinen
8 Sep 2003 11:41

The first wave of lawsuits by RIAA (Recording Industry Association America) has landed upon the chosen 261 Peer-To-Peer file swappers. The worst case scenario is that thousands of more lawsuits will follow in the coming months.

"Our goal is not to be vindictive or punitive," said RIAA President Cary Sherman. "It is simply to get peer-to-peer users to stop offering music that does not belong to them."

It is quite certain that RIAA cannot remove the P2P "issue" by filing law suits one by one. After all, we are talking about a world wide megatrend that millions and millions of people are taking advantage of. But the more aggressive strategy might have some positive side effects, from RIAA's point of view.
The campaign is getting some media attention and this makes people more aware of the legal problems in P2P file sharing. Most importantly RIAA will quite certainly be heard by the companies and corporations and more attention will be directed towards the Internet usage of the employees. Especially larger corporations are now beginning to realize the threat that P2P file sharing creates for them, as they could be a delicious target for the RIAA’s lawyers.

News.com