RIAA changes anti-piracy strategy

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has announced that it will no longer sue individual consumers, and that it will search for more effective ways to combat online music piracy. To this end, the RIAA seeks co-operation with ISPs to create a system of graduated response.

Under this system, the RIAA will notify the provider when it finds a provider\'s customers making music available online (i.e. uploading). The ISP will then warn the customer and ask him to stop uploading the files. When multiple warnings have failed, the ISP may throttle the connection, or in the most extreme cases, suspend the service altogether.

While graduated response is seen by critics as an infringement on a consumers ‘right to internet access’, it does seem to be a more lenient approach to combat online piracy than suing individual consumers. ISPs are also warming to the idea of graduated response, since they need content providers to help them increase the attractiveness of their service. By co-operating with the content industry, they increase the chances of getting a good deal.

Since 2003 the RIAA has started legal proceedings against some 35,000 people. In the end, the legal offensive failed to stem the growing tide of pirated songs, but it did create a huge public-relations disaster for the recording industry. The RIAA said it plans to continue with outstanding lawsuits.