July 2 - 6:25pm EDT   Jammie Thomas-Rasset plans to appeal the recent court decision ordering her to pay $1.92 million in a case involving the RIAA. The legal battle has followed several twists, with the initial filing only leading to damages totaling $222,000 before the decision was thrown out. The federal jury present for the retrial, however, tacked on another $1.7 million. [full story]

June 24 - 3:00pm EDT   RIAA member Universal Music Group this past weekend was forced to settle a music file sharing lawsuit it had filed against New Hampshire resident Mavis Roy. The label dropped its case after evidence provided by anti-piracy snooping firm MediaSentry was successfully challenged by the defense's expert witness Dr. Sergey Bratus. Among other key problems with the data, the defense pointed out that Roy didn't own a computer at all at the time of the supposed infringement and that it wasn't until a letter appeared that she was aware of any possible action. [full story]

June 19 - 10:55am EDT   The long-standing legal battle between Jammie Thomas-Rasset and the Recording Industry Association of America closed another chapter, as the federal retrial found the defendant liable for willful copyright infringement, with the jury ordering her to pay a whopping $1.92 million in penalties. According to a Thursday Ars Technica report, the total damage award of $1.92 million was more than a $1.7 million increase from the amount awarded in the first trial. Thomas-Rasset was found to infringe on 24 copyrights held by the four major record labels, with each infringement costing the defendant $80,000. [full story]

May 22 - 1:30pm EDT   Lawyers are now challenging some of the basic tactics of the RIAA's campaign against filesharing, reports note. The most powerful allegations have been put forth in the defense of college student Brittany English, whose pro bono lawyer, K.A.D. Camara, has asked courts to declare RIAA damage requests unconstitutional. The group has asked for unreasonable statutory damages in a ratio as high as 150,000:1, according to Camara, and moreover used the potential judgments to bully individuals into settlements. The RIAA should be made to return the $100 million or more it has accrued through illicit methods, Camara insists. [full story]

May 12 - 2:35pm EDT   The French National Assembly today approved a modified version of the three-strikes law meant to combat online piracy. Following an earlier rejection of an initial version, the government body voted 296-233 in favor of the bill, which would send two warnings to users caught allegedly trading illegally copied media and require that Internet providers disconnect users after a third offense. [full story]

May 6 - 4:40pm EDT   Despite announcing back in December that it would stop suing individual file sharers and use ISP monitoring instead, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is still filing such lawsuits, says a Tuesday TechDirt article. Not only is it going against what it said before, but RIAA lawyers are claiming the Association never made such a statement in a letter to Congress. [full story]

April 24 - 4:35pm EDT   A recent lawsuit filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on behalf of Arista Records against 16 students at the Albany Campus of the State University of New York is being put on hold while an appeals court investigates what happened in the lower courts. An appeal by one of the unnamed 'John Doe' students, identified only as #3, was granted (PDF) by an appeals court on Wednesday, the result of which could set a precedent in the way RIAA performs its ex parte lawsuits on individuals who have no knowledge of being sued until they can no longer file an appeal. [full story]

April 9 - 9:55am EDT   France's National Assembly on Thursday voted down a proposed law that would have required Internet providers cut off subscribers after three detected instances of pirating music or videos. The decision was made through an unusual 21-15 vote after the majority of the Assembly's 577 representatives avoided the session. The French administration hasn't commented on the rejection other than to say a modified version is due within a few weeks. [full story]

March 25 - 4:15pm EDT   Following today's earlier news of AT&T issuing notices to subscribers on behalf of the Recording Industry Association of America who are allegedly involved in illegal file sharing, Comcast and Cox have announced they too are informing Internet users of any potential illegal activities. At the same Leadership Music Digital Summit where AT&T broke its news, Comcast senior VP Joe Waz said the provider has issued two million notices to its clients. Sources at the event said provider Cox is also actively partnering with RIAA on informing and discouraging its customers of their illegal activities. [full story]

March 25 - 1:30pm EDT   (Update with AT&T response) Telecommunications provider AT&T has confirmed it is working with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) by issuing cease and desist notices to subscribers whose accounts have allegedly been involved in illegal file sharing. CNET reported on Tuesday that AT&T senior executive Jim Cicconi broke the news at a digital music conference in Nashville. Both AT&T and Comcast were named as partners in RIAA's fight back in January, which switched from suing file sharers to issuing notices via Internet service providers. The association has other ISP partners, but has not yet named them. [full story]

March 2 - 11:30am EST   The recent budget cuts that have the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) cutting its staff are more pronounced than initially expected, says a Friday Hypebot report. Due to an increased number of people purchasing digital songs online, the RIAA's role of suing individuals for illegal file sharing is reduced, with the music labels that fund the organization cutting the budget significantly. [full story]

January 28 - 9:30am EST   Both AT&T and Comcast should be the first Internet providers to give in to the RIAA's monitoring program, according to sources speaking with CNET. Three separate contacts allege that the respective DSL and cable providers have tentatively agreed to forward warnings when the RIAA believes its songs are being shared illegally and would volunteer to punish repeated offenders. These could include user-specific traffic throttling and even suspension or a permanent disconnection after multiple alleged infractions. [full story]

January 20 - 4:15pm EST   A study commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs has just concluded that the net economic effects of file sharing for music, movies and games are positive. The resulting 142-page report, put together by research company TNO, doesn't narrow the results to strictly illegal content but argues that, as consumers save money on unnecessary purchases and spend it on more wanted content, they save much more in wasted spending than music production companies lose. [full story]

December 19 - 4:55pm EST   The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is due for significant budget cuts as the major labels backing it will reduce costs and cut down on initiating file-sharing lawsuits, say industry insiders according to a Friday CNET report. Earlier today, it was announced RIAA will stop its years-old practice of suing individuals for sharing pirated music and other copyrighted materials. With this move, the RIAA's role will be largely reduced, and insiders believe the budget cuts will be announced at the Association's upcoming annual budget review. [full story]

December 19 - 8:25am EST   The RIAA today delivered a partial change in stance on Friday by revealing that it will drop its longstanding campaign of suing individual users it alleges have pirate music. The representative group for major music labels says the decision comes after recognizing that its previous approach made people aware of file sharing as a problem but that it was ultimately not very effective in halting the problem outright. Although the number of users has remained constant, the amount of files traded has gone up, the RIAA claims. [full story]