RIAA: It starts...

[gekko]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/interne....ap/index.html

Some key points:

The music industry has won at least 871 federal subpoenas against computer users suspected of illegally sharing music files on the Internet, with roughly 75 new subpoenas being approved each day

Subpoenas reviewed by The Associated Press show the industry compelling some of the largest Internet providers, such as Verizon Communications Inc. and Comcast Cable Communications Inc., and some universities to identify names and mailing addresses for users on their networks known online by nicknames such as "fox3j," "soccerdog33," "clover77" or "indepunk74."

U.S. copyright laws allow for damages of $750 to $150,000 for each song offered illegally on a person's computer

In some cases, subpoenas cite as few as five songs as "representative recordings" of music files available for downloading from these users.

There was some evidence the threat of an expensive lawsuit was discouraging online music sharing. Nielsen NetRatings, which monitors Internet usage, earlier this week reported a decline for traffic on the Kazaa network of one million users, with similarly large drops across other services.