Grant Gross
Senior Writer

RIAA files 717 new file-trading lawsuits

news
Jan 27, 20051 min

Association has sued more than 8,400 people since September 2003

WASHINGTON – The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed 717 new lawsuits against peer to peer (P-to-P) users allegedly trading music for free, the trade group announced Thursday.

The lawsuits include 68 alleged song-swappers using 23 university networks to distribute music files, more than three times the number of university users sued when the RIAA announced 754 such lawsuits in mid-December. The RIAA said it is stepping up enforcement of copyright violations on college campuses.

Among the universities targeted in this latest round of RIAA lawsuits are Georgetown University, Harvard University Medical School, Old Dominion University, Ohio State University, the University of Kentucky, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Users of the Kazaa, eDonkey and Limeware P-to-P software were among the 717 people sued, according to the RIAA.

With the new round of lawsuits, the RIAA has now sued more than 8,400 alleged file-swappers since September 2003.

RIAA officials noted people who want to pay for music online, instead of using P-to-P software to exchange music for free, now have about 230 vendors to choose from. About one million songs are now available on “legitimate” pay-per-download sites, the RIAA said.

Grant Gross

Grant Gross, a senior writer at CIO, is a long-time IT journalist who has focused on AI, enterprise technology, and tech policy. He previously served as Washington, D.C., correspondent and later senior editor at IDG News Service. Earlier in his career, he was managing editor at Linux.com and news editor at tech careers site Techies.com. As a tech policy expert, he has appeared on C-SPAN and the giant NTN24 Spanish-language cable news network. In the distant past, he worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Minnesota and the Dakotas. A finalist for Best Range of Work by a Single Author for both the Eddie Awards and the Neal Awards, Grant was recently recognized with an ASBPE Regional Silver award for his article “Agentic AI: Decisive, operational AI arrives in business.”

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