File Sharing

• Peer-to-peer file sharing is an important variable in the modern-day growth of copyright crime. File sharing has legitimate uses, such as passing along movie trailers or material with expired copyrights. However, file sharing also allows movie and music lovers all over the world to share copyrighted songs and cinema with anyone who has an Internet connection. The entertainment industry has had limited success in legally restricting many websites because the sites do not possess the copyrighted material on their own computers.
  
  

The Recording Industry

• Between 2003 and 2008, the recording industry brought around 35,000 individuals into the court system for illegally downloading copyrighted material. The recording industry realized what pirating was doing to their profits. However, the lawsuits against "single mothers, a dead person and a 13-year-old girl" were having little observable effect on illegal-downloading habits. By 2008, annual album sales were still plummeting, and the industry's image was suffering as well.
  
  

A New Approach

• The Recording Industry Association of America began a new approach in 2008. Although they maintained the existing lawsuits against individuals, they began focusing less on court proceedings and more on cooperation with Internet service providers. The recording industry, through providers, would let individuals who were downloading illegally know that they were being watched. Providers began sending email warnings to individual subscribers and threatening sanctions if they did not comply.
  
  

The Movie Industry

• According to the Recording Industry of America Association's website, there were still no lawsuits being brought against individuals in 2010. However, on June 1, 2010, CNN reported that the motion picture industry was picking up where the recording industry had left off. A private company called the U.S. Copyright Group has begun legal action against individuals on behalf of smaller film companies. As of early June 2010, some 50,000 requests for the identification of individuals have been made of their Internet service providers, according to a CNN report.
  
  

A Trend

• A chart published on the website of Ars Technica shows that the number of federal copyright lawsuits recorded in 2010 had by early June already trounced the numbers from previous years, and the suits were all initiated by the U.S. Copyright Group. Settlement letters sent to suspected pirates asked for between $1,500 and $2,500, attaching the threat of a $150,000 lawsuit if the offer is rejected.