Musical Holocron

I thought this headline was a joke when I saw a link to it. Certainly the organization that has been responsible for totally demonizing simple music-sharing over the last several years and waging a legal war against children and other innocent confused people would not suddenly grow a heart and change their tune.

When you retard fair use with pointless DRM and then sue anonymous children for illegally downloading music while ignoring those of the execs at the top of the music industry, well, you're asking for a public relations nightmare. Now, with more than 35,000 lawsuits to its credit, the RIAA says it will finally end the legal assault against consumers that began back in 2003. The Recording Industry Association of America will instead, focus its anti-piracy efforts with ISPs. Under the new plan, the RIAA will contact ISPs when illegal uploading is detected. The ISP will then contact the customer with a notice that would ultimately be followed by a reduction or cessation of service. As you'd expect, the RIAA is not commenting on which ISPs they are in cahoots with. The RIAA also says that it won't require ISPs to reveal the identities of individuals but could, of course, go after individuals who are heavy uploaders or repeat offenders. For the moment though, it appears that single-mothers are in the clear.

View the full story on Engadget.com. And also see more information on Consumerist.com.

Labels: ♫, copyright, music, RIAA

# posted by ArcoJedi : 16:56