RIAA sees yet more lawsuits

Warning letters sent out to peer to peer (P2P) users by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) appear to have prevented another round of mass lawsuits.

The association's second legal attack on alleged P2P users has resulted in only 80 lawsuits being filed out of a possible 204.

Another 124 individuals are said to have contacted the RIAA to negotiate a deal or to dispute the allegations that they have illegally uploaded songs to the internet.

This approach is in direct contrast to the first batch of 261 lawsuits, which arrived out of the blue and provoked heavy criticism.

US senator Norm Coleman questioned the industry's stance after the RIAA went after children, including a 12 year-old girl, and people who claimed never to have shared music files.

One 60-year-old female Mac user was accused of downloading 'gangsta rap' from P2P site Kazaa, even though the site cannot run on these computers.

The RIAA has also devised a new strategy in its war against file sharers by trying to flood file-sharing sites with 'spoofed' music files.

In such cases downloaders get distorted copies of the latest songs or a message that automatically directs them to a legitimate music site where they must pay for tracks.