RIAA Files More John Doe Lawsuits

The RIAA hit another 531 people with lawsuits, claiming they were illegally posting songs on the Internet for free download.The legal proceedings are part of a second wave of “John Doe” suits, since courts limited the RIAA’s ability to obtain the names of users that trade files.The people, named only by their Internet Protocol (IP) […]

The RIAA hit another 531 people with lawsuits, claiming they were illegally posting songs on the Internet for free download.The legal proceedings are part of a second wave of “John Doe” suits, since courts limited the RIAA’s ability to obtain the names of users that trade files.The people, named only by their Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, were named in five lawsuits in Orlando, Atlanta, Trenton, New Jersey and Philadelphia.”We are sending a clear message that downloading or ‘sharing’ music from a peer-to-peer network without authorization is illegal,” RIAA President Cary Sherman said. “It can have consequences and it undermines the creative future of music itself.”The RIAA represented Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, EMI and Sony Music Group.The RIAA said almost 3 billion songs are downloaded each month.