RIAA files “John Doe” lawsuits against peer-to-peer downloads

RIAA files “John Doe” lawsuits against peer-to-peer downloads

WASHINGTON - The Recording Industry Association of America has filed 751 fresh lawsuits against people who are unlawfully downloading music from peer-to-peer networks like LimeWire and Kazaa.
The current legal process has set off “John Doe” lawsuits, meaning that the defendants will not be named until later. It is reported that students at University of Southern California, Drexel University and Harvard University figure prominently in this particular list.

These lawsuits bring the total number of suits filed from September 2003 to over 17,000. A RIAA spokesperson said that they had settled with 3,800 people. In another set of lawsuits, 105 named defendants will be facing the legal process. These are the people who went unnamed in previous "John Doe” lawsuits filed by the association. These lawsuits have hit the courts a day after a study by the NPD Group claimed that music sharing through the peer-to-peer networks has come down by 11 percent between June and October after the Supreme Court ruled in June that Grokster and Morpheus were running their businesses illegally. Grokster closed shop as a part of the settlement agreement with the RIAA and promises to come back in a safe and legal manner. But media firm BigChampagne has disputed the NDP results.

Eric Garland, the CEO of the firm says that the music downloads are increasing more than they were in May or June or at any point after the court ruling.

Commenting on this fresh round of lawsuits, Cary Sherman, president of the Washington-based Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said in a statement, "At stake is the music industry's ability to invest in the next generation of music and a chance for legal online music services to flourish. We must do everything to protect the integrity of the marketplace. That means educating fans about steering clear of pirated products and continuing to enforce our rights to send a clear message that stealing music will bring consequences." The RIAA also said that the filing of the lawsuits was one component of its fight against music piracy.