RIAA contacted 'hundreds of thousands' of users of the KaZaA and Grokster P2P services with a simple message:
"It appears that you are offering copyrighted music to others from your computer. ...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. When you offer music on these systems, you are not anonymous and you can easily be identified."
It has been reported that 200,000 people received this message. It's effect is largely debatable, most would agree this is going to alienate the RIAA from its customers even more, and possibly increase the usage of P2P networks out of spite.
Ironically, this is exactly what the RIAA argued it couldn't do in a recent case against Verizon, where they argued that Verizon had to disclose customer information for subscribers of its service who used P2P networks, because they had no way of contacting them on their own.
This happened on April 30. I mention this now because I just got one of the IMs.
Really, I don't know whether to be scared or laugh.
Vympel wrote:Hey Bug-Eyed Earl, just noticed- what movie is that little animated screenshot from?
Jesus fuck, 154 kb
"If scientists and inventors who develop disease cures and useful technologies don't get lifetime royalties, I'd like to know what fucking rationale you have for some guy getting lifetime royalties for writing an episode of Full House." - Mike Wong
"The present air situation in the Pacific is entirely the result of fighting a fifth rate air power." - U.S. Navy Memo - 24 July 1944
