RIAA declares war on silver surfers

Parents and grandparents are in the firing line as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) ramps up its fight against the downloading of music files from peer-to-peer (P2P) sites.

According to Associated Press, one 50 year-old grandfather in California was shocked to learn this week that the RIAA had subpoenaed his ISP to provide his name and address for downloading songs from the internet.

But the man was not the downloader - it was a member of his family.

The RIAA is unmoved by such instances, however, and declared that lawyers will pursue downloaders regardless of personal circumstances in order to deter other users.

"The idea really is not to be selective, but to let people know that if they're offering a substantial number of files for others to copy, they are at risk," said RIAA president Cary Sherman. "It doesn't matter who they are."

With an estimated 60 million people in the US alleged to have downloaded songs from P2P sites such as Kazaa, Morpheus and Grokster, cases such as this will not be unusual.