INTERNET MUSIC Group sends warnings to file swappers

A recording industry trade association steps up efforts to stop downloading.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The recording industry has tapped into two Internet file-swapping services to warn people trading music they are breaking the law.
The Recording Industry Association of America, a trade association, will collect the user names of those it suspects are offering copyright material with the Kazaa and Grokster file-sharing services, RIAA President Cary Sherman told reporters during a conference call Tuesday.
He called the effort "educational" and said "there's no enforcement connected to this."
Not concerned
Grokster president Wayne Rosso said he's not worried about losing users.
"This is a death rattle. It doesn't bother us, because we are very anti-copyright infringement anyway," Rosso said. "They think they're harassing us. No. What they're doing is declaring war on our users."
The tactic is the latest in the industry's battle to curb the illegal duplication of copyright works.
In a separate action, the RIAA has sued four college students who allegedly offered more than 1 million recordings over the Internet, demanding damages of $150,000 per song.
Warning message
Kazaa, owned by Sharman Networks Ltd., and Grokster Ltd. distribute peer-to-peer software that allows users to search other users' computers for song, movie and other types of files.
The RIAA is able to reach the services' users by employing a computer application designed to work with the peer-to-peer software. The program allows the RIAA to conduct automated searches of 100-200 of the most popular or most traded song titles on the services.
Users identified as having those songs on their computers, enabled for swapping, are sent the RIAA's message:
"COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT WARNING: It appears that you are offering copyrighted music to others from your computer. Distributing or downloading copyrighted music on the Internet without permission from the copyright owner is ILLEGAL. It hurts songwriters who create and musicians who perform the music you love, and all the other people who bring you music."
The message warns users that they are not anonymous, can be easily identified and are at risk for legal penalties. It suggests the user disable the file-swapping software.
Targeted users
Sherman said that only Kazaa and Grokster users who have their peer-to-peer software set for file sharing are being targeted at this point. No decision has been made on whether to expand the campaign to users of other file-sharing services, Sherman said.
A federal judge ruled last week that Grokster and another file-sharing service, StreamCast Networks Inc., are not to blame for any illegal copying users of their services do. A suit brought by music companies and movie studios against Kazaa is pending.