How To Win Friends And Influence People, RIAA-Style

The Recording Industry Association of America has discovered a whole new way to tick off consumers looking for ways around being gouged by CD distributors and, well, the RIAA. The new plan calls for the prosecution of internet service providers whose users illegally download and share copyrighted music. The strategy is most decidedly not getting good reviews, and one internet security consultant has compared it to prosecuting the highway department because drug smugglers use roads. “But the RIAA scored a big win against an ISP on Tuesday, when a federal judge ruled that Verizon Communications must turn over the name of a Verizon Internet subscriber who allegedly downloaded 600 songs through file-trading network Kazaa in one day.”