Nov. 17, 2006, 10:33AM

p2pnet.net

There's been an almost seven-fold increase in the number of RIAA sue 'em all notices launched at schools in the Buffalo, New York, area since this time last year.

But notwithstanding continuing Big Four 'police' actions, more and more people are logging onto the p2p file sharing networks in Buffalo and elsewhere.

Virtually every month since September, 2003, the Big Four's RIAA told the world another 750 or so of its American customers were file-sharing "thieves" and "criminals" who'd deprived the labels of their rightful earnings.

File sharers are "devastating" the corporate music industry, said various executives.

"Piracy is an idiotic word for what's happening," said Sony BMG's Andy Lack, going on, "it is stealing. This is about criminals and thieves in the night."

"Devastated" means layed to waste. Destoyed. Totally wrecked. So obviously nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to Warner Music, Vivendi Universal, EMI and Sony BMG who are, individually and collectively, worth literally billions of dollars.

They're minting money, reporting eye-popping revenues year after year, thanks to you.

And yet, the music industry has been "devastated" by p2p file sharing, said then CRIA (Canadian Record Industry Association of America) boss Michael Robertson in 2003. Music downloading has "devastated" the industry, screamed his successor, Graham Hendeson, 12 months later. And, "Piracy, it can't be said enough, has been devastating for us," states Lack. "The young - it is not their fault. Now we have an obligation on trying to educate them."

'Blitzing' schools

Warner, et al, have never been able to explain how sharing something equates with stealing it, how it deprives its rightful owner of its use, or how files shared amount to sales lost.

But that's what they say, using the assertion as the foundation for their bizarre sue 'em all marketing and 'educational' campaigns under which they try to use law courts, legal systems and teaching institutions around the world to force music lovers to buy their, and only their, 'product'.

In the US, although they seem to be laying off consumers at large, that doesn't mean they're leaving a specific consumer group - students - alone.

To the contrary, they're "blitzing" schools and, "the recording industry is launching a campus crackdown on free downloading of music," says a Buffalo News editorial, going on:

"Several area colleges say they have seen a sharp increase this semester in the number of notices that the Recording Industry Association of America sent, flagging illicit file sharing on campus.

"It's a perpetual chess game with the devil," the story has Harvey S. Axlerod, the University at Buffalo's "computer discipline officer," referring to, "the ability of illegal downloaders and computer programmers to stay one step ahead".

A, 'more aggressive and comprehensive approach to colleges'

RIAA letters, "state that a computer - identified by an IP address - relying on a file-sharing program was used at a particular time to download a certain file," says the story, going on that the Big Four 'trade' unit had sent only 23 such notices to UB in September and October 2005, but in the same two months of this year have boosted the number to 159.

"We are taking a more aggressive and comprehensive approach to colleges, which includes a greater number of notices," The Buffalo News has the RIAA's Jonathan Lamy stating.

At UB, "students are required to sit through a brief online course on copyrights and must promise to remove the file-sharing software and any illegally downloaded material from their computers, Axlerod said," the story continues, adding:

"File sharing rose steadily from 2003 to 2006 and peaked this March, when 7 million people were using peer-to-peer programs at an average point in the month, BigChampagne Online Media Measurement reported.

"By September, that figure slipped to 6.4 million users, the company reported."

However, Big Champagne tells p2pnet overall statistics for the number of people simultaneously logged onto p2pnetworks at any given time in the US currently look like this:

2003 - 3,004,873
2004 - 4,603,048
2005 - 6,523,733
October, 2006 - 6,562,440

And globally, the numbers are:

2003 - 5,518,899
2004 - 7,048,102
2005 - 8,997,196
September, 2006 - 9,385,967

Stay tuned.

November 01 , 2006 at 9:29 AM PT

AP

The music publishing industry reached a tentative deal with operators of the Kazaa file-sharing network over claims of copyright infringement. The settlement "will be another key milestone of the ongoing transformation of the digital music marketplace to one that will allow legal services to thrive," NMPA President and Chief Executive David Israelite said in the statement.

The music publishing industry reached a tentative deal with operators of the Kazaa file-sharing network over claims of copyright infringement, an industry group said.

Publishers pursuing a class-action suit against Kazaa informed U.S. District Court on Monday that the peer-to-peer network had agreed to pay "a substantial sum" under the agreement, the National Music Publishers' Association said in a statement.

Significant Step

The amount of the settlement was not disclosed. It is subject to final approval by the association board.

The settlement "will be another key milestone of the ongoing transformation of the digital music marketplace to one that will allow legal services to thrive," NMPA President and Chief Executive David Israelite said in the statement.

Phil Armstrong, a spokesperson for Sharman Networks, which owns and distributes Kazaa, said he was not familiar with the lawsuit and declined to comment.

Sharman Networks announced in July that it had settled copyright infringement lawsuits with music labels and movie studios, agreeing to redesign its software to block customers from downloading protected music and movies and to pay more than US$115 million in penalties.

Growing Trend

The agreements are among a wave of legal settlements between file-sharing networks and the entertainment industry since the Supreme Court ruled last year that technology companies caught encouraging customers to steal music and movies over the Internet could be sued.

Last month, a federal judge ruled against StreamCast, the distributor of the Morpheus online file-sharing software, finding the firm encouraged computer users to share music, movies and other copyrighted works without permission.