RIAA Decides to Play Nice…NOT!

After years of waging a legal jihad against their customers, the music industry has decided that nasty lawsuits isn’t a good tactic anymore. You have to wonder why the change of heart given the music industry seemed to take great pleasure is suing the pants off people as opposed to working on creating a kick-ass business model.

But before you think the Recording Industry Association of America has surrendered, think again. Rather than battling against evil music downloaders by itself, the RIAA wants to bring ISPs into the fray by working on agreements that will notify customers when they’re sharing music that shouldn’t be shared.

According to the Wall St. Journal, 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.”

To be honest, it’s a brilliant approach.

After all, why do all the dirty work by yourself when you can build an army to fight the good fight. By taking this approach, the RIAA moves away from being the Evil Empire, while getting some help to achieve the same end goal.

Of course, it also means that ISPs will be taking a bigger role in monitoring/policing every piece of digital traffic that flows over your connection. If you thought ISPs are overbearing now, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

More: Mike Masnick, who knows this issue as well as anyone, described the RIAA’s decision as a “small step” in its effort to create more constructive business models. Meanwhile, Life on a Wicked Stage calls out the RIAA for trying something new because the lawsuits didn’t work very well.

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