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RIAA File-Sharing Lawsuits Top 10,000 People Sued

Posted by timothy on from the maybe-there'll-be-cake dept.

An anonymous reader writes "While Firefox broke the 50,000,000 barrier today, the RIAA broke a more dubious barrier this week: It has now sued over 10,000 file sharers for copyright infringement, making it a good time to ask if the RIAA will ever throw in the towel. Taking an academic look at what's best for the industry, this economics article shows the financial upside to P2P file sharing. And on the flip side, this legal article argues that file swappers have a constitutional right to pay much smaller penalties than the millions of dollars they can be liable for under copyright law, making the RIAA's lawsuits much less profitable."

7 of 490 comments (clear)

  1. throw in the towel? by Schlemphfer · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It has now sued over 10,000 file sharers for copyright infringement, making it a good time to ask if the RIAA will ever throw in the towel.

    Doesn't your corner only throw in the towel if you're getting your ass kicked? From what I understand, the RIAA is settling nearly each of these cases out of court for a substantial profit. If that's the case, why would they ever throw in the towel?

    --
    I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
    1. Re:throw in the towel? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > From what I understand, the RIAA is settling nearly each of
      > these cases out of court for a substantial profit. If that's

      That is exactly correct. So far one person has stood up and resisted settling out of court.

      So a press release saying the RIAA has sued 10,000 people is a complete fabrication. The RIAA has threatened to take people to court for everything they own over IP violations, and the people have backed down and paid multiple-K settlements instead.

      They haven't paid the RIAA through judgments, they haven't paid *fines* to the RIAA, they haven't paid legally required fees to the RIAA, they have paid a *settlement* to the RIAA in order for the RIAA to not go ahead with legal action.

      Repeat after me: The RIAA have not yet sued anyone. They have applied extortion using the threat of a costly legal battle involving megacorporation vs one individual.

  2. The RIAA Will Never Quit by StarWreck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The RIAA will never quit suing P2P users because the RIAA is making a profit from it...

    --
    ... and in the DRM, bind them.
    1. Re:The RIAA Will Never Quit by StarWreck · · Score: 5, Insightful
      They are collecting the money for songs
      Too bad the RIAA is keeping the money for themselves (only paying the Lawyers and the CEO's). Not a single penny from any of the 10,000 lawsuits have gone to the artists from whom "the money was stolen".
      --
      ... and in the DRM, bind them.
  3. You fund this by buying CDs by BinBoy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You fund these lawsuits every time you buy a CD. Then they sue you, you settle and they sue even more people. Solution: stop buying CDs.

  4. Profits from suing by Corpus_Callosum · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The RIAA will never quit suing P2P users because the RIAA is making a profit from it...

    How right you are! Imagine, 10k lawsuits. Let's assume that each one of them settles for an average of $5k (a pittance compared to what they could get by copyright law, and I believe many of these settlements are much higher).

    At $5k a pop, 10k of these settlements is worth $50,000,000 dollars.

    How long will it be before the profits from lawsuits exceeds that of music licensing for the RIAA? Is it really that far fetched to imagine? Settlements are better business than records ($5k vs. $9)...

    Perhaps, like antivirus companies spinning virus out into the wild, the RIAA will begin quietly sponsoring P2P programming efforts in an attempt to expand their new market (defendants)...

    These are strange times...

    --
    The reason that it can be true that 1+1 > 2 is that very peculiar nonzero value of the + operator
  5. Re:How about trying to 'fix' it... by stubear · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The solution is for people to stop buying CDs and listening to music created by members of the RIAA. Until you stop doing this the "problem", as you put it, will continue.