The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is expected
to announce an amnesty next week for file swappers who are
illegally sharing copyrighted music over networks like KaZaA. But
it is also likely to announce the first court actions against 1,600
"substantial" file swappers it has identified as worthy of
prosecution.08 Sep 2003
The RIAA announced in June that it would be turning its attention to individual pirates, not just the file-sharing networks which facilitate file swapping. Since then it has served numerous subpoenas under the controversial US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), ordering ISPs to identify targeted individuals.
The RIAA has been heavily criticised for this aggressive approach to individual file swappers, and the amnesty is seen as an attempt by the association to woo back alienated customers.
The RIAA has made no official comment on the rumours of an amnesty, but there are widespread reports that the announcement will be made next week. According to Associated Press the amnesty will take the form of a notarised amnesty form to be completed by the P2P user.
The form requires that the user will admit to having illegally shared copyrighted music over the internet and will promise to delete the downloaded songs from their computers, CD-Rs or other storage facilities. The user will also promise not to download copyrighted songs again. In return the RIAA will promise not to sue the user.
The amnesty will not apply to those individuals already identified by subpoena.