3 Guilty of File Sharing, RIAA Sues 750

Found on Betanews on Monday, 27 February 2006
Browse Various

In a statement, the DOJ said Derek Borchardt, 21, of North Carolina; Matthew Howard, 24, of Colorado; and Aaron Jones, 31, of Oregon obtained the music through insiders at record companies, magazine publishers and retail outlets. Songs were stored on servers run by the group.

In a separate action, the Record Industry Association of America announced it had filed another 750 lawsuits against unnamed individuals as part of its long-running legal efforts against P2P users. These "John Doe" suits include the individual's IP address, which the RIAA uses to discover his or her identity.

In a statement, RIAA president Cary Sherman hailed the lawsuits as protecting the integrity of the market so legal music services like iTunes can prosper. Sherman also coined a new phrase for those who download music illegally, likening them to retail shoplifters with the term "songlifter."

"Just as we continue to educate fans about the right ways to enjoy music online, we will continue to enforce our rights through the legal system. Songlifting is not without consequences," he said.

I wonder if his PR guys told him to make up fancy words to sound cool. The only point he doesn't get (nobody from the industry obviously does) is the fact that filesharing is nothing like shoplifting. When you steal, you take something away from the owner. Filesharers make copies. Applying their logic, you could also say that xeroxing is stealing.