MPAA hops on the sue-em-all bandwagon

For about a year now the RIAA, which represents recording artists, has launched a sue-em-all campaign against 1 in 5 Americans (that based on the fact that there are an estimated 60 million file swappers and roughly 5 times that many Americans). So the RIAA feels completely justified in seeking a few thousand dollars from each of these awful file swappers. The status quo says that the RIAA can seek up to $150,000 for each copyrighted song a P2Per has on their computer.

Some math: 60 million p2pers X 150,000 per copyrighted song X 500 songs (rough estimate of the number of songs a p2per has) = $4,500,000,000,000,000. Dude! I don't even know how to read that number.

Something like forty-five hundred trillion dollars.

Yes, that's the "damages" the RIAA is justified in seeking in the eyes of the law, and I'm sure they deserve every penny of it.

But in the RIAA's infinite grace and wisdom, they usually offer each individual they sue a merciful out-of-court settlement of a few thousand dollars. Thank goodness for checks and balances! (Hope you caught the sarcasm there).

So far they've managed to shake down 5,000 people.

So anyhoo, the MPAA has hopped on this bandwagon. I guess they have found the wonderful PR benefits of suing your customers. But here's the twist: In a thinking-outside-the-box move which seems woefully rare by industries that are covered by the colossal umbrella of protection that copyright holders are granted, the MPAA has decided to tell our mummies and daddies. How mature.

link

Somehow, the RIAA is planning on installing software on people's computer and that will hunt for copyright software and encourage the user to delete it.

Supposedly Section 512(f) of the DMCA of 1998 forbids intimidating people if the accuser knows the person is not guilty and it also forbids anyone from deleting files in which copyrights have not been infringed. If these rules are violated, the accused person can seek damages.

Lets hope we can sick section 512(f) on the derrieres of the MPAA.