The American Spectator

br> br> The legal term for this is ex parte , and traditionally such abuses of constitutional rights have been permitted only when there is a clear and present danger to human life. Internet provider Verizon and others have challenged the constitutionality of the subpoenas in court, while Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas has introduced legislation to rescind this provision of the DMCA. So far, the RIAA has issued more than a thousand subpoenas, sued 261 individuals, and settled with 64. Some of those sued include a grandfather whose grandchildren allegedly downloaded songs during visits and 12-year-old girl who lives with her single mother in public housing. She settled for $2,000. br> br> To say that these lawsuits have resulted in a catastrophic public-relations hit for the RIAA would be an understatement, but the organization presses ahead regardless, promising hundreds of thousands of additional suits. The PR hit the RIAA will suffer when some parent of a downloader loses his house or is sent to prison can only be imagined. br> br> The RIAA should reconsider. Fast. The cassette recorder didn’t kill the music industry, and the video recorder didn’t kill the movie industry. Rather, they became new revenue streams. File sharing could too. Napster, in its death throes, offered the record industry a deal — join with us, and we’ll share the profits. Bertelsmann was the only major smart enough to sign on. /p>

The record industry killed Napster, but file sharing didn’t die — it became further distributed and harder to control. There is no evidence the RIAA’s strong-arm tactics are scaring downloaders straight. When the entertainment industry went digital, it made not only the old technology obsolete but also the old copyright law. The RIAA must learn how to live with this or perish.