Audio Video News

Just in time for the holidays, the Recording Industry Association of America has announced that it will no longer launch mass lawsuits against wayward consumers for illegally sharing music files on the internet. What a lovely present!

The surprise announcement ends an ugly era in which the RIAA, the trade association of the record labels, sued more than 35,000 consumers since 2003, claiming statutory damages of $100,000 per song--or slightly more than 100,000 times the fair market value of a track legally downloaded from iTunes.

So what's Plan B? Internet service providers will take on file sharers instead, sending a series of emailed warnings. Customers who don't pay attention will eventually see their internet service cut off. The RIAA believes this approach, though less draconian than lawsuits, will be a better deterrent because it will reach more people.

The RIAA has been negotiating with ISPs and says it has agreements in principle with some. It has had the help, since summer, of New York State attorney general Andrew Cuomo, who has helped broker agreements with local ISPs. "We wanted to end the litigation. It's not helpful," said Cuomo's chief of staff to The Wall Street Journal.

While the RIAA is keeping the lawsuit option open, presumably for dire cases of piracy, the mass lawsuits are over.

And what does the RIAA have to say for itself? "Over the course of five years," since the lawsuits began, "the marketplace has changed," said chairman Mitch Bainwol to the Journal. Is this a tacit admission that lawsuits were never such a great tactic in the first place? That it did nothing to prevent the plummeting of music-industry revenue, year by year? That it sucked money away from developing new artists? That it turned off a whole new generation of potential music buyers?

In any event, the world has become a less ridiculously litigious place. If you're one of those folks who stopped buying major-label CDs on principle, this holiday season might be a good time to send a new message to the RIAA: "Thanks!" Buy your mum a CD this year. Come on, it won't kill you.