The scoop to date

If you pay any attention to technology news at all, you know that the RIAA has been on a campaign for 6 or so years to find copyright infringers and sue them into oblivion to warn against other potential or actual infringers. Most of the lawsuits never make it to trial, because the accused (and you can't even call them accused really, because the lawsuits never get filed) are bullied into settling with the RIAA for a paltry few thousand dollars or so. What's really disturbing about this practise is that the so-called guilty party settles, perhaps not even realizing that there were no guarantees that the RIAA or the songs' rights holders wouldn't come after them in the future with a full-fledged lawsuit. Let's face it, in the eyes of a jury, paying the settlement looks like a guilty plea, even though you might have been motivated to settle because you have assumed that you couldn't win your case in a court of law against a behemoth like the recording industry. After all, we're all not made of money and we can't all afford the best intellectual property lawyers, right? I mean, how would you react if you were threatened?

But in the case of those who rise to the challenge issued by the RIAA and say "Screw you - see you in court", and because few people understand the technology, crafty RIAA lawyers are able to convince naive jurors that because they found some songs downloaded or shared by IP address such-and-such, it's a guarantee that it had to be Mrs. Jones that did it. There are two such cases that went to trial and in those cases, the jury awarded damages to the RIAA (which the defendants have to pay) in the amount of $675,000 for 30 songs; and $1,920,000 for 24 songs. Both of those cases are being appealed.

Let's take a moment to examine the reality of such an accusation however. Just because an RIAA flunky has determined that a certain IP address has participated in (alleged) illegal file sharing, and used a bullshit legal loophole to get the ISP who manages that IP to cough up the supposed account that this particular IP is tied to, does not actually prove that that account holder is guilty. Why? Because all it takes is for any of the following to happen for the proof to fall flat:

• The account holder's child's friend comes over and uses their internet connection to download a song.
• The account holder's wi-fi network is compromised and is used by a passer-by to download a song.
• The account holder is a public internet reseller or public hot-spot.
• The IP is a proxy being used for privacy protection to re-route packets from other computers at another location.
• There are plenty more situations that would qualify.

So in essence, being able to determine that a certain IP (supposedly) downloaded a song doesn't prove squat.

Meanwhile, the RIAA have indicated that their campaign of lawsuits is winding down and that they will now switch to a campaign of forcing ISPs to disconnect internet access to (alleged, but unproven) online infringers. What exactly does this mean? It means that using the same 'proof' of infringement as before, the RIAA (or any entertainment industry organization, in any country, thanks to current secret trade negotiations taking place) can tell a judge that your ISP must disconnect the entire account from the internet because someone was (allegedly) a bad monkey. Did your kid supposedly download an infringing song under the watchful eye of the RIAA? Kiss your internet connection goodbye. Maybe permanently, depending on how weasel-ly your country's government is. Did a company employee supposedly do the same? Then that company's internet connection, perhaps the lifeblood of its business can be terminated.

No concrete evidence. No arrest. No trial. No jury.

Bend over.......

There is good news though. If you want to keep downloading stuff, just don't do it at your home or workplace. I'm joking.

In a few years it won't even matter. In just a short while, it will be possible to buy a hard drive big enough to store every song ever recorded. Then it's just a matter of getting together with your friends and cloning their drive onto your empty one. Then the entertainment industry will be helpless to stop it, let alone find it. Do you hear that - in the distance? It's the sound of a business model disintegrating. Cover your ears.