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[ThatHawaiiGuy]

Music Firms Sues 261 Online Swappers
Monday September 8, 2:51 pm ET


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A recording-industry trade group said on Monday it had sued 261 individuals for distributing thousands of songs over the Internet without permission, and said more suits are on the way.
The Recording Industry Association of America said it had filed copyright-infringement suits in U.S. courts across the country, marking the first time the group has taken legal action against the millions of Internet users who copy music directly from one another's hard drives.

Until now, the trade group has focused its courtroom efforts on Kazaa and other "peer to peer" networks that enable such activity, which the industry blames for a decline in CD sales.

Those targeted by the lawsuits had distributed an average of more than 1,000 copyrighted songs each, the RIAA said. Under U.S. copyright law they could face penalties of up to $150,000 per song, but the trade group has already settled several cases for around $3,000 each, RIAA President Cary Sherman said.

"Nobody likes playing the heavy and having to resort to litigation, but when your product is being regularly stolen there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action," Sherman said.

Separately, Apple Computer (Nasdaq:APPL - News) reported that it has sold more than 10 million songs on its iTunes Music Store since it opened four months ago. The music store lets customers sample 30 seconds of any song for free. Each song costs 99 cents to purchase.

Sherman said the RIAA continues to investigate online song copying and plans to file thousands more lawsuits. The trade group also unveiled an amnesty program that would remove the threat of prosecution from those who promise to refrain from such activity in the future and erase all copyrighted music they have downloaded.

The president of peer-to-peer service Grokster, which is fighting a courtroom battle of its own with the industry, said the tactic would only waste money and alienate music fans.

"I feel sort of like the Russians fighting Napoleon," Grokster President Wayne Rosso said, adding that traffic on his network is nearly back to levels it reached before the RIAA announced its intention to sue users in late June.

RIAA members include Vivendi Universal's (NYSE:V - News) Universal Music Group; Sony Corp.'s (Tokyo:6758.T - News) Sony Music; AOL Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE:AOL - News) Warner Music; Bertelsmann AG's (BERT.UL) BMG; and EMI Group Plc. (London:EMI.L - News).


http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/030908/tech_music_lawsuits_1.html