RIAA files 493 more lawsuits

YESTERDAY, THE RIAA sued 493 more people accused of sharing music illegally using the internet. The number of people who have been sued in America by recording companies now stands at just under 3,000.

Like before, the RIAA is making sure to target regular people who happen to be sharing files, or as they have been labelled, "John Doe" defendants. The sharers have been identified only by I.P. addresses. As with before, lawyers will be requesting subpoenas against ISPs in order to obtain the names of the defendants.

None of the cases have gone to trial yet, but 486 people have agreed to pay settlement fees of around $3,000. The RIAA announced that lawsuits were not targeted at college or university internet users at all.

The 493 defendants were using commercial internet accounts from companies based in 17 states, including: Alabama, California, New Jersey, New York, South Dakota and Texas. µ