In an article published on June 28 on the website Slyck.com, a popular site dedicated to news and activism surrounding P2P networks, writer Thomas Mennecke contends that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has retooled its "strategy of launching a continuous barrage of monthly lawsuits aimed at approximately 750 individuals," a policy that has resulted in more than 18,000 suits since it was instituted three years ago.
That doesn't mean the industry watchdog has given up on litigation, Mennecke claims. It simply means that the RIAA fears that the general public has become complacent about "some nameless, faceless individual on the other side of the continent [being] sued for sharing 5000 songs on the FastTrack network." Accordingly, the RIAA has implemented a strategy that spreads the suits out over the course of a month rather than initiating them all on a single date. Furthermore, the suits target specific geographic locations, "working with local media outlets to catch the attention of the surrounding populace."
"We are currently filing lawsuits throughout the month in batches, in order to maximize efficiencies and expand the geographic reach," Mennecke quoted an RIAA spokesperson. "We are always looking for ways to make the program as effective, smart, and targeted as possible. We need to be flexible in how we manage these litigations in order to handle them efficiently. The lawsuits are and will continue to be an essential part of a larger effort to encourage fans to enjoy music legally."
One difference is evident: The RIAA website has no mention of its current round of suits, whereas local news outlets cover the stories about nearby residents who have been sued or threatened. This may be the part of the RIAA's strategy that backfires, however. The Palm Beach Post covered Boynton Beach's Dorothy O'Connell, a 53-year-old-widow living on a fixed income, and The Evansville Courier & Press reported on five southern Indiana residents who have been served. The RIAA may think it is putting a face on piracy and therefore educating the public that file-swapping is illegal, but I suspect that many people may react quite differently, as in Why is this relentless entity picking on my neighbors? Reading that Ms. O'Connell was fined $6895 for downloading music, plus $305 in court costs, may make the RIAA look more like Snidely Whiplash and less like the strict-but-fair home-room teacher.
That's not to say that there isn't a real piracy problem. There is, and it isn't retirees in Palm Beach who are raking it in, as Associated Press writer Alex Nicholson reports, it's organized crime. Nicholson describes the efforts of the Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) top Russian anti-piracy operative to curb the $300-million-per-year DVD piracy industry. Nicholson describes the ready availability in Russia of pristine DVD transfers from 35mm theatrical prints via sophisticated telecine machines—a process that isn't precisely illegal under Russian copyright law. Telecine transfers from The Da Vinci Code were available in Moscow within a week of the film's release. Now that's piracy and it doesn't need a face.
