A federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled against the Recording Industry Association of America by forcing the organization to sue each music downloader individually.
In the judge’s ruling, a subpoena would be authorized for the first defendant charged with illegally downloading music, but the RIAA must file individual lawsuits thereafter.
The RIAA’s latest attempt to stop illegal downloading includes requesting subpoenas for groups of defendants, known as “John Does,” who are only identified by their Internet-Protocol numbers. The latest suit included defendants using a Comcast service provider for Internet access.
The RIAA is presently deciding whether they will file more than 200 individual lawsuits against the remaining “John Does,” which would cost $150 for each filing.
According to RIAA spokesperson Amanda Collins, the organization does not yet have a plan of action that they are willing to report.
“We are reviewing our options,” Collins said. “But [the ruling is] not going to stop us.”
The RIAA has sued 1,445 illegal file sharers using Peer-to-Peer programs, such as Kazaa and Grokster, in addition to pending lawsuits the RIAA filed against the programs. The Motion Picture Association of America is also involved in the suit against the Peer-to-Peer programs in connection with file-sharing services now providing movies for download along with music.
The MPAA and RIAA filed an appeal against MusicCity and Grokster after a lower court found them not liable for the copyright infringement occurring on their services last August. The courts agreed that downloading and sharing copyrighted material without permission is illegal, but did not seek to find the networks responsible.
“These are businesses that were built for the exclusive reason of illegally exchanging copyrighted works, and they make money hand over fist from it,” RIAA president Cary Sherman said in a release.
The RIAA and MPAA sued Kazaa, Grokster and StreamCast networks in October 2001. The district court ruled in favor of the StreamCast networks and Grokster April 25 last year. The suit against Kazaa is still pending.
“People need to remember that [downloading] is illegal,” Collins said. “It is the same thing as stealing a CD from a store.”
Many opinions continue to surround the issue of music and movie piracy, which is demonstrated by the arduous battle of the MPAA and RIAA against the file-sharing networks that began nearly four years ago. While it is assumed that the majority of people sued by the RIAA are college students, the recording industry does not know the average demographic of the defendants they sue because they identify defendants only by their IP numbers.
While the morality of downloading music for free off the Internet is debatable, many of the tactics the RIAA has used to sue defendants is also in question. University of Wisconsin freshman Christie Emberley does not see the tactic as equal when people use file-sharing services in many different ways.
“It just doesn’t seem right to be able to go after hundreds of people in one lawsuit,” Emberley said. “What is to prevent them from grouping people who have only downloaded a couple songs with those who have hundreds?”
