James Delahunty
1 Mar 2007 6:06
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sent out a stark warning to U.S. college students about downloading and sharing music files illegally on the Internet. The trade group, which represents the recording industry in the United States, including the big four major record companies, also offered students a way to settle disputes out of court.
The RIAA said it has sent out 400 letters to 13 Universities warning about copyright infringement lawsuits against students who use the University networks for piracy. It has asked the Universities to notify students that they will be sued, but can settle the cases before any lawsuit will be filed.
The trade group will continue to send out hundreds of letters each month in an effort to stamp out file sharing amongst students. Thousands of P2P users across the United States have been sued by the RIAA for using software like Limewire and Kazaa to download and share music files without paying for them.
According to BigChampagne, more than 1 billion songs are traded for free monthly, setting file sharing way ahead of the legal market. The RIAA and global record industry has blamed this statistic for a rapid decline in physical CD sales since 2000.
Source:
Reuters