RIAA Turns to IM in Anti-Piracy Fight

Still bristling over a surprise court ruling
that the Grokster and Morpheus P2P networks could not be held liable for
copyright infringement, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
has taken up instant messaging as an anti-piracy tool.

Starting Tuesday, millions of file-swappers on the popular peer-to-peer
networks are getting IM warnings that there are “real consequences” to the
illegal sharing of copyrighted files. Both networks use a
publicly-accessible IM function.

“When you break the law, you risk legal penalties. There is a simple way
to avoid that risk: DON’T STEAL MUSIC, either by offering it to others to
copy or downloading it on a “file-sharing” system like this,” the IM
messages will say, according to the trade association.

And if that’s not a strong enough warning, the RIAA is tossing in the message that file swappers “are not
anonymous and you can easily be identified.”

The warnings continue: “You also may have unlocked and exposed your computer and your private
files to anyone on the Internet. Don’t take these chances. Disable the
share feature or uninstall your “file-sharing” software,” according to the
IM.

Although the RIAA said the IM warfare will target certain unidentified peer-to-peer networks, the effort is especially keen on users of the Kazaa and Grokster systems.

“Many users of systems like Kazaa and Grokster may be under the mistaken
impression that anything they do on these systems is now legal. In fact,
every court decision regarding peer-to-peer networks has confirmed that
distributing or downloading copyrighted music without permission of the
copyright owner is illegal. And that’s the message we want to get across to
users of these systems,” said RIAA President Cary Sherman.

He said the decision to go to the source of the problem was part of an
education campaign to “enlighten consumers as to other risks and
consequences” of file-sharing, including the security issues involved with
exposing PCs and private files to everyone on the Internet. “By reaching out
to individuals directly through these educational instant messages, we hope
to encourage individuals to take the necessary steps to stop stealing
music,” Sherman added.

The new scare campaign comes less than a week after a Los Angeles judge
freed the Grokster and Morpheus networks from being sued by a slew of
big-name entertainment firms, including AOL Time Warner, Vivendi Universal,
Sony Corp., Viacom Inc., News Corp. and Walt Disney Co.

U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson argued Grokster and Morpheus can
not control how people use their software, which could also have legitimate
applications. The court cited the famous Sony Betamax case of 1984, where
the Hollywood studies tried to outlaw VCRs but ran into a Supreme Court
ruling that use of new technology to infringe copyrights did not justify an
outright ban on that technology.