EFF Looks Back at Four Years of RIAA Lawsuits

This Saturday marks the fourth anniversary of the RIAA's first lawsuits against consumers, alleging that they were violating copyright by sharing songs on peer-to-peer networks. More than 20,000 (and probably about 30,000) people have been targeted since, and the RIAA shows no signs of slowing down. And yet, P2P networks continue to grow in popularity. Are the lawsuits having any effect?

The EFF takes us on a candid and interesting history lesson [PDF link] in this report, walking us through the RIAA's initial attempts to sue the technology companies out of existence, then, when that failed, to issue "DMCA subpoenas by the thousands," which eventually led to the first wave of settlements: One of the first to settle was a 12-year-old girl living in NYC public housing, forced to publicly apologize for her actions and pay a $2,000 settlement. But the RIAA started on the wrong foot, as well, withdrawing lawsuits against the obviously innocent, like a grandma accused of downloading hardcore rap using Windows software... though she had a Mac.

By 2004 the RIAA began suing "John Doe" defendants, basically filing lawsuits against IP addresses without bothering to subpoena the ISPs for a name attached to the IP address. Meanwhile, suits against the poor, disabled, and the dead piled up. The tales of those sued wrongly are legion and, in many cases, quite frightening.

Are the lawsuits working? Doesn't look that way: Globally, the number of P2P users has risen from 3.8 million in August 2003 to 8.9 million by June 2005.

What does the EFF propose to get the RIAA back to sanity? A reasonably-priced, DRM-free, all-you-can-eat P2P system in exchange for, say, $5 a month. While I'm sure the RIAA would never go such a deal (it might jump on a $150 a month plan), I'm hard-pressed to come up with anything better. Anyone got any good ideas on curtailing piracy while keeping artists fairly paid? How about getting rid of the RIAA altogether and sharing the cost of running the organization?

This PDF is a lengthy essay (8 of the 25 pages are footnotes), but if you're at all interested in how the music industry has ended up in the messy state it's in, it's a history lesson definitely worth the read, and the remembrance.

Thanks, Ars Technica!