Even though the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) decided it's going to abandon its efforts suing individual file sharers accused of copyright infringement, and will instead have file sharers booted off the Internet, there are still problems with the RIAA's plans.
Circumventing the courts and instead working directly with Internet Service Providers (ISPs), according to the Washington Post, turns the RIAA into sheriff and the ISP into a deputy. It's unsure what kind of evidence needs to be provided to the ISP, which could lead to Internet users highly unsure of what they can do to protect themselves.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) also is not pleased with the new law, stating it will give the RIAA a wider net to try and catch alleged filed sharers.
"This means more music fans are going to be harassed by the music industry," EFF senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann told the Post. "The problem is the lack of due process for those accused. In a world where hundreds of thousands, or millions, of copyright infringement allegations are automatically generated and delivered to ISPs, mistakes are going to be made ... Anyone who has ever had to fight to correct an error on their credit reports will be able to imagine the trouble we're in for."
Furthermore, if the RIAA made so many mistakes while filing John Doe lawsuits, what will happen when they start issuing an even larger number of subpoenas to ISPs?
The thousands of lawsuits filed by the RIAA have proven to be nothing but a public relations nightmare that hasn't helped stifle the growth of piracy. This new RIAA plan will allow the organization to reach more users without a lot of the public backlash.
Either way, it should be interesting to see how long it takes before file sharers are getting booted off their connections for piracy. Will it take one or two tries? How about three tries?
