Music - Credit: shankarmenon on Flickr (CC BY)

The Wall Street Journal reports that the RIAA has announced that it will no longer be using lawsuits in its attempts to end infringment on the Internet. It will instead request that ISPs implement a “three-strikes” policy with regard to those that they catch.

The decision represents an abrupt shift of strategy for the industry, which has opened legal proceedings against about 35,000 people since 2003. Critics say the legal offensive ultimately did little to stem the tide of illegally downloaded music. And it created a public-relations disaster for the industry, whose lawsuits targeted, among others, several single mothers, a dead person and a 13-year-old girl.

Instead, the Recording Industry Association of America said it plans to try an approach that relies on the cooperation of Internet-service providers. The trade group said it has hashed out preliminary agreements with major ISPs under which it will send an email to the provider when it finds a provider’s customers making music available online for others to take.

Depending on the agreement, the ISP will either forward the note to customers, or alert customers that they appear to be uploading music illegally, and ask them to stop. If the customers continue the file-sharing, they will get one or two more emails, perhaps accompanied by slower service from the provider. Finally, the ISP may cut off their access altogether.

So what happens if the RIAA accuses the wrong person? Will the ISP still punish him or her, or will it actually try and see if the accusations are true before proceeding? At least with the lawsuits you could, in theory, defend yourself. Given how quickly ISPs comply with DMCA takedown requests, I can’t see them sifting through logs to see if infringement actually occurred when it would be much easier to just assume that it did and penalize the subscriber regardless.

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