The RIAA: No Longer Suing

According to this article posted on Current.com, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has officially announced that they will no longer sue civilians for sharing of copyrighted music over the internet. According to the article, over 35,000 people have been sued by the RIAA since 2003, with an average settlement amount equaling about $3,500 per case. The RIAA started its campaign to stop copyright infringement of recorded music over the internet during the Napster years (1999-2001). Subsequent file sharing services have all come under fire by copyright holders backed by the RIAA, and civilian users of these services (the file "sharers") have been primarily targeted. Now the RIAA says it will focus on the Internet Service Providers (ISPs), mandating that the service providers warn users to stop the infringing actions and to block repeat offenders' access to the internet.

Essentially what the RIAA is saying is that it is now attempting to stop being the bad guy that it has quickly become over the past few years in the minds of digital music consumers. Thanks to Apple and iTunes, the music industry has found a way to legitimately sell digital music online. Further, due to an agreement by the RIAA and other industry associations, songwriters and music publishers are now going to get paid a royalty for the streaming of songs online, a development that has been under heavy debate in recent years. Whether or not one agrees with the actions of the RIAA and its constiuents, the fact is that the industry is slowly shaping itself to fit the digital and new media world, which is very exciting indeed.