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RIAA Says "Wanna Fight? It'll Cost You!"

Posted by timothy on from the come-the-revolution dept.

jeiler writes "Ars has the details on an RIAA strategy to double the cost of settling copyright infringement suits for students who try to quash the group's subpoenas in court. In a nutshell: settle early, pay $3,000; try to quash the subpoena and the settlement cost rises to $8,000."

1 of 367 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Really... Really? by ericbg05 · · Score: 5, Informative

    How is this not racketeering and extortion? I mean, c'mon... It's not either of those things, I'm afraid.

    My girlfriend IAL; she says this particular practice of the RIAA is perfectly legal. A party to a civil litigation can alter the settlement terms basically however they want, whenever they want (subject to public policy, of course: RIAA can't alter the terms to include the forfeit of your firstborn child or whatever). A settlement is just a contract, after all.

    This makes sense, so the argument goes, because a party's costs for litigating a particular case become higher and higher as the case progresses. So, the settlement costs must increase concordantly.