Record industry fires warning shot http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2003-09-30-piracy_x.htm Record industry fires warning shot By Mike Snider, USA TODAY WASHINGTON Faced with congressional scrutiny, the record industry said Tuesday that it won't back off its plan to sue thousands of people swapping pirated music on the Internet but that it will start sending out letters to warn them legal action is on the way. "That gives them an opportunity to settle" early or provide information that might shed light on their cases, Recording Industry Association of America Chairman Mitch Bainwol told a Senate hearing. Three weeks ago, the RIAA filed its first 261 lawsuits against people accused of swapping copyrighted songs over peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa. Many first learned of the lawsuits when they were called by reporters. Among those targeted were a 12-year-old honor student in New York City and a retired teacher in Boston whose computer was incompatible with the swap service she was said to be using. The RIAA announced Monday that settlements have already been reached in 64 cases, 12 of them involving people who had not yet been sued but who had been warned by their Internet providers that their identities had been subpoenaed. Though the RIAA didn't release the amount of the settlements, news reports range from $2,000 to $7,500. "I am troubled by a strategy that uses the law to threaten people into submission," said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who chaired the hearing. More than 2.6 billion music files are downloaded every month, as the record industry waned from a $40 billion market in 2000 to $32 billion last year, Bainwol said. Suing file sharers "was the last (weapon) we had in our quiver." Rap artists LL Cool J and Chuck D took opposing sides of the issue. An actor and musician, LL Cool J said he felt cheated when an album or film he makes is "shooting around the world for free." But Chuck D, founder of music site Rapstation.com, considers peer-to-peer sharing "a new accessible radio" that is not beholden to the music industry: "I trust the consumer more than I trust those at the helm of (music) companies." Coleman said he remained worried about the "heavy-handedness" of the lawsuits, which carried fines of up to $150,000 for each song shared from their hard drives. When asked whether the fines were excessive, Bainwol said they got consumers' attention and established a deterrent. "Public floggings would get attention, too, but we don't do that," Coleman responded. University of Virginia ethicist Jonathan Moreno testified the fines "are way out of proportion," and laws need to be updated. Despite the lawsuits, attitudes may be tough to change. In a Gallup Poll out Tuesday, 83% of teens said it's morally acceptable to download music from the Net for free.
