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Record Labels Send Flurry of Subpoenas

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Times Staff Writer

It looks like the record industry wasn’t kidding.

Three weeks after announcing that it planned to sue those who share songs online, the Recording Industry Assn. of America has obtained federal court subpoenas for the identities of at least 871 people it has accused of violating music copyrights, Associated Press reported Friday.

The subpoenas compel Internet service providers to reveal the names and addresses of people whose accounts allegedly have been used to make songs available for free copying on a file-sharing network such as Kazaa.

The RIAA declined to say Friday how many subpoenas it plans to obtain -- although court officials said they were issuing them at the rate of about 75 a day. Nor was it clear whether the record companies would sue every person identified through the subpoenas.

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“What we don’t know is whether the numbers will eventually slow,” said Sarah Deutsch, associate general counsel of Verizon Communications Inc., which has received about 150 subpoenas, or whether the blitz is “the beginning of something we’ll be seeing for a long time.”

One thing seems certain: The RIAA has no plans to send warning letters to the people it targets. Instead, they will simply be sued.

Numerous labels, songwriters and artists have endorsed the RIAA’s initiative, saying they had run out of alternatives in their effort to combat online piracy. Many in the music industry blame the popularity of online file-sharing -- an estimated 60 million people use online sharing networks in the U.S. alone -- for the prolonged slump in CD sales.

There is evidence that lawsuits could stem the copying. In a recent survey by Forrester Research of 1,170 12- to 22-year-olds, 68% said they would stop downloading music “if there were a serious risk” of being fined or jailed.

They also might switch to a network that offers to conceal their activities.

A number of file-sharing systems are trying to hide their users’ Internet addresses or block the “bots” that collect evidence of infringement.

Opponents of the RIAA lawsuit strategy say it is risky for the record companies. The process of suing and extracting settlements from hundreds of Internet users, they say, could transform the labels from victims to bullies in the eyes of lawmakers.

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RIAA President Cary Sherman has said the group would “go after the worst offenders first,” judged in terms of the number of songs offered for copying. Associated Press reported that some subpoenas listed as few as five songs whose copyrights were allegedly infringed, although that may not reflect the total number of songs offered by those users.

Several grass-roots efforts are popping up to build economic and political pressure on the record industry. These include groups urging consumers to boycott CDs by RIAA members’ artists, encouraging lawmakers to legalize file sharing and offering legal aid to those who have been subpoenaed.

Some Internet service providers, including Verizon, are notifying customers whose identities are subpoenaed.

Stewart Baker, general counsel for the U.S. Internet Service Providers Assn., said he hadn’t heard about a customer fighting a subpoena, but added, “We’ll undoubtedly see challenges of that kind.”

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