Am I going to be sued for downloading music files?

• Author: Mireau, Shaunna
• Position: On-line law

Wired magazine (www.wired.com) reported on September 8 that RIAA--the Recording Industry Association of America--followed through with its threats earlier this year to aim lawsuits at people it accuses of illegally distributing about 1,000 copyright music files. The article claims that RIAA said it did not know anything about the people it has targeted other than the number of copyright songs they distributed and their names and addresses.

The article brings up some very interesting points, including the following:

On average, the music traders had made over 1,000 music files available to others on P2P networks like Kazaa. The most egregious offender sued had shared over 3,000 files.

The RIAA also formally announced an amnesty program that would give peace of mind to file sharers who voluntarily come forward and admit their wrongdoing.

The music industry blames piracy occurring on P2P networks for its three-year decline in CD sales.

Under [US]federal copyright law, penalties for copyright violations range from $750 to $150, O00 per work infringed. The court will decide the amount of damages.

[Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA] said that a "handful" of people who were alerted that their information was subpoenaed by the RIAA had approached the music group and are in the process of settling their cases. The settlements in those cases will amount to about $3,000 each, which is probably a more lenient agreement than settlements to come.

The RIAA said it had given repeated warnings to file sharers. The group has been working with colleges and universities to combat the problem, and the group contacted sharers directly in an instant-message campaign to alert them that sharing copyright files is illegal.

Add to the data above, another Wired article from September 16 that reports

WASHINGTON--A U.S. appeals court wrestled with questions Tuesday over whether the music industry can use special copyright subpoenas in its campaign to track and sue computer users who download songs over the Internet.

Judge John Roberts of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia challenged Recording Industry Association of America lawyer Donald Verrilli Jr. on whether computer users downloading music were any different from people who maintain libraries in their homes.

Roberts questioned whether the fact that copyrighted files were publicly accessible on someone's computer necessarily means the Internet user is illegally distributing those files...