Music industry watch

One suit at a time, please!

Wired News covers the latest development in the RIAA's Sue the World program, where a judge ruled that the RIAA needs to file one John Doe suit per person:

On Friday, Judge Clarence Newcomer authorized a subpoena in the case of John Doe No. 1, because the RIAA had submitted a detailed case against the individual. But the judge ordered the music industry to file separate suits against the remaining 202 alleged infringers.

. . .

The music trade group must pay court fees for each of these cases. Filing each lawsuit will cost $150 in court fees, for a total of over $30,000, according to the EFF.

I've previously argued that the RIAA won't be able to recover the cost of sueing everyone and here is the proof. While a $150 fee is not going to deter the RIAA, the costs to prepare and and prosecute each case individually is going to take massive amounts of lawyer time. And copyright lawyers (even ass clowns representing the RIAA et al) are not cheap.

I think that there will be no more $2000 settlements, since it will cost more than that to just carry out the suit. Tack on some actual money for the infringement and you'll see these settlements tick up. $10K doesn't sound out of the question anymore, and judges may not award $10k+ settlements, since the punishment increasingly does not fit the crime. And given that (some, but more than not) research shows that the suits have not impacted the file sharing much, there seems to be little reason to keep the lawsuits going.

At least this rational person sees little reason. Unfortunately the RIAA can't be considered rational.

Posted by Mayhem at March 9, 2004 12:06 PM