Its MO is to subpeona Internet service providers for the Internet addresses of people who may have downloaded music from one of the MP3 sites that proliferate on the Internet. Since addresses are usually assigned on a rotating basis for short periods of time, tying an address to specific activities a given person may have been engaged in is highly problematic. RIAA files a suit in a distant jurisdiction in the literal name of "John Doe" (A string of midnight riders attached to various pieces of recent legislation allows them to do this!) requiring whoever lives at John Doe's address to pay a "settlement" of some huge number picked out the air. These suits ave been filed against the dead, people who don't use computers, but everyone just pays up because it's cheaper than hiring a lawyer and traveling to a court in some distant state.
The new bill from Gonzales would increase the penalty to life in prison, slacken the evidence standard to "potential" infringement, and have Homeland Security report violations directly to RIAA. This makes record labels an arm of the federal government.
I'm sure this bill will not be voted out in its present form. Just like all the other times, we will wake up one morning to find that it has passed as an amendment to a bill for fish hatchery inspection.
WORSE THAN THAT
It makes the Federal Government an enforcement arm of the RIAA.
How can they do that? Since when do you not have to file suit in a venue which can in some way be tied to the defendant?