The music trade group, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is notifying 204 individuals that they are the targets of the next round of lawsuits. Some see this as a move by the RIAA to help tone down the criticism they received after they launched their first group of lawsuits against 261 song-swappers last month. (see story)

"We take the concerns expressed by policy makers and others very seriously," RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a statement. "In light of the comments we have heard, we want to go the extra mile and offer illegal file sharers an additional chance to work this out short of legal action." 

The first round of suits which were supposed to be targeted at the most “egregious” copyright violators that offered over 1000 songs to other swappers over P2P systems like Kazaa, opened a bad PR can of worms once word started getting out about who got caught in the RIAA’s net. 

Those included a 12-year-old New York girl who lived in public housing, who erroneously thought that buy purchasing a license for the software that allowed her to trade files, she was authorized to do so. Guess she doesn’t read the news being that young. A advocacy group stepped up and helped the girl’s family pay the settlement.

The funniest one came when it was discovered a 60+ year-old women in Boston was accused of swapping “gangsta” rap songs through Kaaza. The RIAA dropped the suit against this women once it was discovered she actually owns an Apple Macintosh computer, which Kazaa will not run on.. oops! 

There are others who dispute the original volley of lawsuits including a Los Angeles man that claims he was targeted by the RIAA for using an internet IP address he says he can prove he never used. (IP are used to identify each computer online, Internet Service Providers assign you one when you log on to their service so that websites etc know where to send back your request for webpages etc.)

But aside from the press, the RIAA took heat from lawmakers who criticized the trade group’s tactics. During a congressional hearing last week, RIAA representative promised to send “warning” letters to potential targets of lawsuits before filing litigation against them. It is believed that this tactic will allow individuals who are erroneously accused to dispute the RIAA claims and also allow those who wish to settle before the actual suit is filed, to do so. 

With that in mind the letters sent out last week by the RIAA focus on trying to get the accused file swappers to settle. 

"We have gathered substantial evidence that you have been using a peer-to-peer network such as Kazaa or Gnutella to download and upload music owned by our clients," reads a sample letter. "We are writing in advance of filing suit against you in the event that you have an interest in resolving these claims through settlement." 

The letter gives the recipient 10 days to answer before the RIAA "proceed to litigation". And that they are potentially liable for $750 for each copyrighted song they have shared. 

They also warn that "ignorance of the law is not a defense" and they warn the individual not to destroy evidence related to the copyright violations ( MP3s on their pc’s). 

The RIAA says that future lawsuits will proceed on a weekly basis, instead of a volley of 100 plus. 

Out of the 261 suits filed in the original volley, the RIAA says they have reached settlement with more than 50 of the targets. 

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