Archive:Three Strikes? They're Out

After five years of suing their customers for alleged copyright infringement, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has decided to abandon the strategy. During their unprecedented legal campaign, the RIAA began legal proceedings against 35,000 individuals. They filed suit against college students, single mothers, people who do not even own a computer, a laser printer, and even a dead person.

Although the RIAA's expensive troupe of lawyers were able to strong-hand thousands of Americans into coughing up thousands of dollars, they did not sustain one victory in court. Every time judge and jury became involved, the RIAA's legal arguments fell apart.

The new tactic, currently being finalized, is perhaps even more insidious. The RIAA hopes to partner with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to permanently disconnect Internet users who are accused of file sharing.

Under the secretive agreements, the RIAA would continue to accuse thousands of normal people of copyright infringemen, but instead of filing lawsuits, their partner ISPs would agree to forward accusations to their paying customers. If this happened three times, the ISP would disconnect their customer from the Internet.

It's Three Strikes and You're Out.

Three Strikes and You're Offline
So, what's wrong with this?