RIAA Changes Strategy In Fight Against Illegal Downloading

The RIAA has stopped filing lawsuits for illegal downloading and is now fighting the problem through Internet service providers (ISP). The Wall Street Journal reports that the music industry—which has sued 35,000 alleged downloaders for copyright infringement since 2003—hasn’t filed a suit since this fall. The lawsuits had created numerous public/consumer relations for the industry as a whole.

Preliminary agreements with major ISPs show that the RIAA will notify the provider when it finds a provider’s customer uploading music for potential free download. Then the ISP will warn the customer, asking them to stop on more than one occasion. If the customer continues file-sharing, they could receive slower service or be cut off altogether.