At least 871 federal subpoenas and counting were issued, as of this past weekend, against online peer-to-peer file swappers accused of sharing copyrighted music files illegally, as the Recording Industry Association of America began making good on a threat last month to do just that.
The RIAA subpoenas are also trying to force some of the nation's largest Internet service providers, including Verizon and Comcast, plus a number of colleges and universities, to give up the names and mailing addresses for users the music trade group knows only by online nickname, according to the Associated Press.
The damages sought could be anywhere from $750 to $150,000 per illegally swapped song on an individual's computer under federal copyright laws, but the AP reported the RIAA is open to settlement proposals from any defendants.
Not that music fans won't be fighting back, the AP said, including "new software designed specifically to stymie monitoring of their online activities by the major record labels." In fact, a new version of the Kazaa Lite P2P program is said to be able to prevent anyone from listing all the music files on their machine and block Internet address scans, the AP added.
The RIAA threatened the subpoena action not long after they won a legal bid, under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, to force Verizon to give up the name of at least one P2Per swapping music files online while using Verizon as his Internet service provider. Verizon had fought that action off for months, fearing – as did many civil libertarians and even some in the music business – that it could trigger a potential for massive privacy rights violations. Verizon also told the AP they received 150 of the new subpoenas.
On June 25, the RIAA announced they were going to go after the subpoenas which began coming through July 18. "The law is clear and the message to those who are distributing substantial quantities of music online should be equally clear --- this activity is illegal, you are not anonymous when you do it, and engaging in it can have real consequences," president Cary Sherman said in that June announcement. "We'd much rather spend time making music then dealing with legal issues in courtrooms. But we cannot stand by while piracy takes a devastating toll on artists, musicians, songwriters, retailers and everyone in the music industry."
The trade group has also said they expect to get and serve hundreds more such subpoenas over the coming eight weeks.
