The Recording Industry
Association of America filed hundreds of lawsuits against consumers who engage
in file sharing, accusing individuals of illegally downloading and sharing copyrighted
material.
The lawsuits, which
numbered 261, were filed in courts around the country by the RIAA, who represents
Sony, EMI, BMG, Universal Music and Warner Music. The RIAA said this was the
first wave of lawsuits, which could number into the thousands.
“Nobody likes
playing the heavy and having to resort to litigation,” RIAA president Cary
Sherman said in a statement. “But when your product is being regularly
stolen, there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action.”
The individuals
smacked with lawsuits in the first wave were sharing on average of 1,000 files.
The RIAA is offering
amnesty to file traders, if they delete any downloaded music on their computers
and agree to never participate in file sharing again.
Copyright laws
call for fines of up to $150,000 per song illegally downloaded on a persons
computer.