Music Industry Decides To Nag Instead Of Sue
Dec2210:15 PM
Filed in: Music News
The Wall Street Journal reports that the RIAA (Recording Industry Association Of America) will stop its campaign of mass suits against illegal file sharers. Why the change of heart? It's not working. Never has, never will.
But don't fear, the RIAA have a new tactic.
Nagging.
That's right, they're going to nag you to death through your ISP. Apparently they've been chatting it up with your local, friendly Internet Service Provider and they've come to an agreement of sorts. The RIAA will show ISP's an ongoing list of alleged copyright infringers and the ISP will then contact the infringer directly, asking them to remove the content.
But what then? Well, if it isn't taken down...then the ISP will nag you to do it. And back and forth, and back and forth...I'm guessing it'll be as fun as haggling with your cell phone provider over unjust charges and persuading them to lift the ban on your service. If the nagging goes on long enough and you don't comply, your service could be disconnected.
I'm guess the level of nagging will entirely depend on how far in bed the ISP is with the RIAA, but they can wave a pretty heavy stick when they want to.
Regardless, I guess this is good news. Good news that there won't be any more parents going bankrupt because their kid downloaded the new Fall Out Boy album. I'm not kidding, the RIAA has issued legal proceedings to over 35,000 people (including a dead person).
Could this be related to the current financial crisis? Perhaps. But could their litigation campaign be any worse of a public relations nightmare?
This news only affects Americans right now. But since they're the largest music territory in the world, what goes on in there has political impact worldwide.
