Jari Ketola
30 Oct 2003 14:34
RIAA reported on Thursday having filed 80 new lawsuits against suspected file swappers. Earlier this month RIAA sent warning letters to users who were in danger of being sued.
In the first wave of lawsuits RIAA sent 261 subpoenas to users accused of sharing large numbers of copyrighted music online. This time RIAA sent 204 warning letters beforehand, and 124 of those lead to an out of court settlement. RIAA is pleased by both the publicity it has gained, and the fact that a majority of the new cases were settled without a trial.
There is some evidence that the controversial RIAA lawsuits against ordinary computer users are making a dent in the file-swapping world. According to Web analysis firm Nielsen/NetRatings, weekly usage of the Kazaa software in the United States plummeted from a high of 7 million people in early June to just 3.2 million people in late October.
However Download.com still reports 2.1 million weekly downloads for Kazaa software.
Source:
News.com