IM applications are freely available and popular among internet users as an alternative to e-mail, the advantage being that short messages are sent and received instantly
On Tuesday the music industry body sent over 200,000 instant messages to users of the Grokster and Kazaa file sharing services. It claims to have software that tracks the swapping of copyright-protected material. Cary Sherman, President of the RIAA, said that millions more messages will be sent out over the coming weeks.
"It seemed like a very logical way to reach your target audience," said Sherman. "We can take out ads and do videos on web sites, but you don't know whether you're hitting the right people. When you send an IM to someone offering music files at the time the music files are being offered, saying what they're doing may be illegal, it's the best way to target the message."
The RIAA's message was blunt:
"COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT WARNING: It appears that you are offering copyrighted music to others from your computer. Distributing or downloading copyrighted music on the internet without permission from the copyright owner is ILLEGAL. It hurts songwriters who create and musicians who perform the music you love, and all the other people who bring you music.
"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 campaign comes a week after a federal court ruled that the companies behind Grokster and Morpheus, another P2P service, cannot be held liable for copyright infringements by their users.
According to Reuters, Sherman was concerned that some P2P users might have interpreted the decision as legalising file sharing. But he stressed that the timing was coincidental and that the IM campaign had been planned long ago.