BUSINESS 2004: INDUSTRY FOCUSES ON MUSIC PIRATES LAWSUITS INITIATED AGAINST PEER-TO-PEER DOWNLOADERS.Byline: Evan Pondel Staff Writer The music industry, in concert with the U.S. government, stepped up efforts this year to curb illegal file-sharing that continues to plunder TO PLUNDER. The capture of personal property on land by a public enemy, with a view of making it his own. The property so captured is called plunder. See Booty; Prize. tens of millions of dollars from artists and record labels. The Recording Industry Association of American unleashed hundreds of lawsuits throughout 2004, many targeting college students who allegedly downloaded songs that were illegally distributed via the Internet. In October, about 750 computer users, including 25 students at 13 universities, were identified in file sharing-related lawsuits, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America, Washington, DC, www.riaa.com) A membership association of music recording companies. Its goal is to promote the record label industry and protect the rights of copyright owners. It was a major contributor to the SDMI digital distribution system. , a Washington, D.C.-based trade group that represents music companies. The RIAA also sued 213 people in 34 states and Washington, D.C., who had already been named in earlier litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. but failed to settle their cases. The trade group said the defendants distributed copyrighted recordings on unauthorized peer-to-peer services, including eDonkey, Kazaa, LimeWire and Grokster. The schools included California State University, Northridge CSUN offers a variety of programs leading to bachelor's degrees in 61 fields and master's degrees in 42 fields. The university has over 150,000 alumni. It's also home to a summer musical theater/theater program known as TADW (TeenAge Drama Workshop) that leads teenagers through an , and the University of Southern California The U.S. News & World Report ranked USC 27th among all universities in the United States in its 2008 ranking of "America's Best Colleges", also designating it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission . Trying to stem what he called a $250 million-a-year piracy epidemic, then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft outlined federal plans in October to end illegal file-sharing. Since March, the department's Task Force on Intellectual Property has stepped up efforts to prosecute both foreign and domestic intellectual property theft. But understanding the scope of piracy, especially via the Internet, has been a major source of frustration for both the federal government and the creative industries that contribute an estimated $600 billion to the U.S. economy. Despite more vigilance, new fears are surfacing that songs streamed over Internet radio sites can also be pirated. Evan Pondel, (818) 713-3662 evan.pondel(at)dailynews.com |
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