261 sued for swapping music files

"We expect to hear people say, `Well, it wasn't me, it was my kid.' If they would prefer that the lawsuit be amended to name the kid, we can certainly do that."

Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America

A recording-industry trade group said on Monday it had sued 261 individuals for distributing hundreds of thousands of songs over the Internet without permission, and said many more suits are on the way.

The Recording Industry Association of America said it filed copyright-infringement suits in US courts across the country, marking the first time the group has taken legal action against the millions of Internet users who copy music directly from each others' hard drives.

Until now, the trade group has focused its courtroom efforts on Kazaa and other "peer to peer" networks that enable such activity, which the industry blames for a decline in CD sales.

"Nobody likes playing the heavy and having to resort to litigation, but when your product is being regularly stolen there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action," RIAA President Cary Sherman said.

Those facing the lawsuits had opened up their hard drives to other users, making an average of more than 1,000 copyrighted songs available to others over peer-to-peer networks, Sherman said. Users who simply copied songs and did not share their own music collections were not targeted, he said.

One suit filed in New York includes computer "screen shots," which show a Kazaa user with the nickname "touchofcream" distributing songs by Frank Sinatra and Shania Twain.

"The conduct of Defendant is causing and, unless enjoined and restrained by this Court, will continue to cause Plaintiffs great and irreparable injury that cannot fully be compensated or measured with money," the lawsuit says.

Sherman said the RIAA continues to investigate online song copying and plans to file thousands more lawsuits.

The trade group also unveiled an amnesty program that would remove the threat of prosecution from those who promise to refrain from such activity in the future and erase all copyrighted music they have downloaded. The program will not be available for those who are already being investigated, he said.

Under US copyright law defendants could face penalties of up to US$150,000 per song, but few settlements are likely to involve such large sums. The trade group has already settled several cases for around US$3,000 each, Sherman said.

"We expect to hear people say, `Well, it wasn't me, it was my kid.' If they would prefer that the lawsuit be amended to name the kid, we can certainly do that," he said.

The president of peer-to-peer service Grokster, which is fighting a courtroom battle of its own with the industry, said the tactic would only waste money and alienate music fans.

"I feel sort of like the Russians fighting Napoleon," Grokster President Wayne Rosso said, adding that traffic on his network is nearly back to levels it reached before the RIAA announced its intention to sue users in late June.

In addition to Grokster and Kazaa, defendants used the Gnutella, Blubster and iMesh networks, Sherman said. Nearly all had previously received instant-message warnings that the activity was considered illegal, he said.

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