RIAA has a New Business Model called Early Settlement
February 13, 2007
The RIAA recently sent out a letter to ISPs (internet service providers) with information about their future plans. There are two important bits of information I think need to be drawn out.
First, it is amusing to see that the RIAA asks the ISPs to let them know if the ISP could have possibly misidentified a customer after a subpoena, or if the ISP has become aware of technical information that causes them to question the information they provided to the RIAA. This comes as quite a shock, because everybody knows that the ISPs have infallible logging procedures and practices, with logging and accounting software written by the Psychedelic Coding Monkeys of Mount Vesuvius. Combine that with the overpaid staff that never makes mistakes, and you have a bulletproof way of logging your customers and their P2P criminal exploits. It is absolutely impossible for an ISP to link the wrong account to a target IP address. Nope. Never happened. Kinda makes one wonder if the FBI, DHS, and CIA are getting the same incorrect customer info for their subpoenas as well.
On to bit two.
The RIAA wants the ISPs to send out “early notification” letters to each customer for whom an identity subpoena has been issued. Some ISP’s already do this, but the RIAA wants it to become standard practice. Combine this with the RIAA’s plan to allow for discounted “early settlements” and you have a blatant plan for extortion (of innocent people, sometimes). Act now before we take you to court, and you could get $1000 or more off your settlement! Sale Ends Soon! Refer a friend and get a voucher good towards your next early settlement! The RIAA includes a fill-in-the-blank notification letter for ISPs to send to their next victim so they can hand over their early settlements to fuel the RIAA’s unruly pack of lawyers/attorneys/legal aids. This new approach makes perfect sense, since the RIAA has recently been informed by lady justice that their lawsuits are frivolous and unreasonable.
Update: The RIAA’s horrendously ugly and cheap settlement website p2plawsuits.com is now live. This design is all they could afford with all those lawsuit settlements?
