RIAA Changing Tactics? no more lawsuits

I think you'll find that illegally downloading files breaks the terms of service for your ISP. If they don't then remove your access, they become complicit in the crime, opening up avenues for the RIAA to sue them instead.

I'm pretty sure that when the BBC reported this about six months ago that's how they said it'd work anyway. It'll cost the RIAA nothing extra because the onus of responsibility is pushed down to the ISPs.

Let's say you had a company that made magic keys that would open any lock and you leased them out with a stipulation that the user wasn't allowed to use them to break into people's houses. If people were doing that and you weren't taking steps to stop them (By taking the keys back) do you think you'd avoid reprisal from the people whose stuff was getting nicked?

Also I imagine the process will be a fairly simple one for ISPs too. They'll have a big list of known pirate sites and track whether you visit them. If you do an email or letter will be automatically generated telling you to stop and if you don't they'll cut you off. They won't know if you're actively breaking the law but will be simply covering their bases, it'll be up to you to prove you're doing nothing wrong.

It's like the bullshit where they pretend there's detector vans that can tell if you have a tv license or not. The vans are empty, they just have a list of all the addresses that don't have a license and they drive past, looking out to see if they can see a tv on through the window.

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Slippery slope or unconstitutional it might be but let's face it, who the fuck is even going to really know that's what's going on? Even if it's fairly common knowledge the chances of anyone bothering to take their isp to court for unconstitutional letter writing are beyond slim. As Crash suggested, the letters will scare most people off, especially in the case of households where it's the kids downloading stuff and the parents paying for the internet and those that are hardcore pirates will just change isps (Until they're blacklisted after getting banned from a few, I imagine the names will be passed around).

The overall effect is a drop in piracy as casual pirates are put off, the RIAA can be seen to be doing something and the ISPs can't be accused of pandering to pirates. I'd hardly call that a failure for the RIAA.

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