RIAA Shifts Focus On Fight Against Piracy

The fight against online piracy has been a grueling uphill battle, with many left scarred and wounded. From the artists who’ve seen album sales drop, to the people who’ve been sued by the RIAA. Each side has their reasons for conducting themselves the way they do. Depending on which side of the argument you fall on probably rests on how important Copyright law are to you.

I’ll admit that I’m rather neutral in the debate, but there’s one thing that has always confused me with the RIAA. Their practices of finding justice in lawsuits against people who download music illegally. Not only are some of the lawsuits ridiculous in terms of how much is paid, but it’s who they go after. They don’t take into consideration that some of the people they go after aren’t what most people consider to be criminals.

My favorite take on illegal downloading is this video from the Musical parody artist, Weird Al Yankovic.

There have been cases that the RIAA has gone after teenagers, some who are having struggles paying medical bills for surgeries. They’ve gone after grandma’s, financial struggling families, and even the deceased. While stealing music is never right, is putting even more financial burden on people who have enough as is all that fair? No one likes Prince John in the Robin Hood stories, and movies.

I think the RIAA is starting to catch on to the problems with their lawsuits. In a recent WSJ article, it appears that the RIAA is giving up on their lawsuits against downloaders. I’m not sure what light bulb went off in someone’s head, but they are now shifting their focus towards the uploaders.

Although the RIAA will still finish up their current cases, they’ve concoted a new strategy that appears to make more sense. The RIAA will be working closely with ISP’s, in monitoring customers who upload files for others to download. Instead of trying to sue people, they are going to allow the ISP’s to handle the matter.

When someone is found to be uploading files for illegal sharing, an email warning will be sent. If the problem continues to happen, there will be more warnings. If the user then refuses to give up then the ISP will purposefully slow down their internet connect, and eventually restrict access altogether.

I actually think that this plan has a chance of working, much more so than the lawsuits. First, there’s a lot less people uploading files than downloading them. Second, there’s no nasty lawsuits that need to be filed; ones in which that make the RIAA look like the bad guys. This plan also will be cutting the problem off at the source, which is the most important aspect.

Time will only tell if their plan works. I have enough confidence in it to believe that it’s better than their current course of action.