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Do you want to settle a case online? The part writing a network scanner, print out form letters, and build a website that accepts extortion money doesn't cost that much. What matters is to fine tune their selection algorithm to pick only the profitable victims. Notice that no lawyer is involved so far, possibly only to get a stamp of approval for the legality of bringing such system online.

I think the best part of this is that since they outsource the development of the computer system to MediaSentry, they might have an agreement about MediaSentry having to defend RIAA for legal liability in case MediaSentry screws up. At least for the cases I've read about, so far the cases that RIAA dropped and are being counter-sued have belonged to this category, screw up on the part of MediaSentry.

What don't you understand about this whole thing being a business model?

The gaming industry seems to have the ESA, and the software industry has BSA, and both of them have been working in their own way to weed out piracy. And they seem to be doing fine by not going after individuals, but bigger fish like warez/release groups, modchip sellers, etc.
The RIAA could simply go after torrent trackers which earn a profit via donations (there are a few torrent trackers who's admins are driving around in expensive cars bought from the donations of users) or the like, or they could similarly go after release groups. The kind of arrogance ( P2PLawsuits.com ) and blatant disregard of their own customers that the RIAA seem to show is quite disgusting IMO.

It took some looking. The article has a link to the extortion letter. The letter has the URL for the settlement support center. The URL in the PDF is not clickable.

The page with the link to the letter is here; http://consumerist.com/consumer/riaa/the-riaa-p2plawsuit-letter-sent-to-college-students-241054.php

The Settlement demand letter is here; http://consumerist.com/assets/resources/2007/03/riaaletter.pdf

https://www.p2plawsuits.com/ Settlement support center link is here.

In case some people want to see for themselves the Netcraft stats can be found here and to verify who owns a domain and what the authoritative nameservers are one should use whois.
Is this stuff that matters? Perhaps not for everybody, but some people may be interested. The P2Plawsuits site to settle your case online instead of risking court was moved fast, but I wonder how many people would be willing to enter their credit card info on a site with an invalid SSL cert.

I can only imagine what would happen to MY company if we threatened to sue our best customers and then crowed about how easy we made it for them to pay us.

We'd be out of business in a week. I don't understand what makes the RIAA member companies feel so special.

So of course out of curiosity I check out http://www.p2plawsuits.com/ and I'm graced with advertisements for e-Donkey and "The top 6 P2P Network Sites"

Seems like the RIAA needs to sue themselves for promoting illegal P2P music downloads.

What you suggest is both unreasonable and illegal. They may act like assholes, but there's absolutely no reason to stoop to that level and become an asshole yourself. If you really want to voice your displeasure, why not talk things out with them and explain why you disagree with them and what they're doing? It's not like it's impossible to contact them, I mean, if you read the letter:

National Coordinating Counsel for the Litigation

Ms. Katheryn Coggon
Holme Roberts & Owen LLP
katheryn.coggon@hro.com
Phone: (303) 866-0408
Note: The letter was from Steve Marks, also with this law firm. These are the people the ISPs are being instructed to deal with.

Record Company Representative

info@SettlementInformationLine.com
http://www.p2plawsuits.com/
Phone: (913) 234-8181
Fax: (913) 234-8182

Note: The website is a GoDaddy parked domain without any content just yet. These are the people the folks getting sued are supposed to contact.

Just remember to be civil; it's not like you'll convince someone they're wrong by acting like an asshole, and you'd probably get in well-deserved trouble. However, if you politely make it clear to them just how many people think what they're doing is wrong, they just might reconsider their actions.

I get a kick out of the fact that www.p2plawsuits.com currently points to a GoDaddy placeholder page filled with ads for P2P software and instructions for streaming satellite signals to your computer.