RIAA's evil subpoena plan takes effect

The board has issued subpoenas to ISPs in the US which will force the ISPs to identify any customers who are using p2p networks, such as Kazaa or Grokster. Apparently, 75 subpoenas are being granted every day, and the RIAA has already issued a stonking 871 subpoenas.

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, there has recently been a very sudden drop in the number of users on file sharing networks: Kazaa in march had 17.4 million users, but over the space of 3 months it's traffic from home reached approximately 14 million, which is a decline of 20 percent or so.

Users who are found to be sharing a significant number of mp3 files could very well be in for penalties ranging from $750 to $150,000 for "damages." Quite a bit more than a price of a CD, I'd say.

In related news, Boycott-RIAA has called for anti-RIAA rallies, following the introduction of the 'Author, Consumer, and Computer Owner Protection and Security (ACCOPS) Act of 2003' bill, which, bluntly, makes it possible for file sharers to be thrown in jail. µ

See Also
The war on some files
How to infuriate the RIAA and stay enragingly legal