WEEKLY COMMENT: RIAA faces uphill struggle

While trying to seek out and rid the world of maverick web pirates, in a bid to resurrect the declining fortunes of the music industry, it has attracted lawsuits from ISPs, individuals and most recently, disgruntled webcasters.

But it also faces a new challenge - technology. This week the RIAA revealed some of its most secretive techniques, detailing how it goes about snaring file-swappers, who it pretty much blames for the slump in CD sales, defying numerous economic principles.

In a filing against 'nycfashiongirl', who made nearly 1,000 songs available for download to other file-swappers, it disputed her claims that these tracks were burned from a CD. How does it know this? Well, it employs technology used by the FBI, that's how.

The industry body has the ability to track files exchanged on the defunct - if soon to be legally relaunched - Napster platform from as far back as spring 2000. But has it yet realised that it too is being tracked?

Wily file-swappers have this week been alerted to new software called PeerGuardian that aims to hide their illicit activities from the prying eyes of RIAA informants.

PeerGuardian is available for free and provides users with a firewall that blocks known RIAA investigators from accessing files stored on computers, by referencing a list of hundreds of addresses used by the RIAA when seeking out music pirates.

The Windows software is not however flawless - all the RIAA needs to do to combat this is use new addresses when investigating major copyright breaches.

However, it provides the RIAA with a brand new headache and software such as PeerGuardian will surely become more prevalent as file-swappers do all they can to protect their privacy. Unless, that is, the US courts decide to back the claims of nycfashiongirl, who's lawyer this week said: "You cannot bypass people's constitutional rights to privacy, due process and anonymous association to identify an alleged infringer."

But in the case of nycfashiongirl, the RIAA appears to have a case, given that its tracking technology - which the Feds use to identify hackers - has allegedly proved that she did in fact download the files illegally.

At a cost of up to $150,000 per song, nycfashiongirl faces a potential fine of - brace yourself - $150m. It looks like a wardrobe sale on eBay might be in the offing. However, the RIAA has indicated that it is prepared to consider settlements proposed by defendants, presumably payable in cash rather than shoes.

While this hardly represents a softening of its policy, it might pave the way for a voluntary amnesty for paranoid file-swappers in the US, were such a scheme to be introduced.

Whether an amnesty would work or not is doubtful, but it would provide pirates with the chance to sleep better at night, if they had the means to own up and cough up for their copyright-related sins.

In the meantime, industry watchers will be keen to see whether the RIAA maintains its course by filing hundreds of lawsuits next month to seek billions of dollars in damages. But given that the average fashion-conscious file-swapper probably doesn't have that kind of money lying around, isn't this all a bit pointless?

While the RIAA has to be seen to be making efforts to prosecute major music pirates, it must also encourage the music industry at large to participate in an authorised online music revolution, rather than putting out fires and making lots of bad noise in the process.

Furthmore, Grokster's Wayne Rosso suggests that about a third of all Americans are active file-swappers, meaning that overnight, if the RIAA has its way, the US could lay claim to the unfortunate boast of having the largest criminal contingent in the world.

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