Downloading Free Mp3s? No Worries! We’ll Charge You Without You Knowing!

Posted on | December 20, 2008 | 1 Comment

The RIAA has been changing its course in regards to downloaded music (aka: mp3s), but this is pretty big. The RIAA has now made “direct” connections to where it hurts people the most: your ISP (internet service provider). No longer will they be suing the average-joe: “teenagers, little old ladies, and corpses“. Instead, they have made some agreements with some internet service providers where they will send you a message if you are caught downloading music online.

Here is the first paragraph of the e-mail/letter you will receive (link):

“Sir or Madam:

I am contacting you on behalf of the Recording Industry Association of America, Inc. (RIAA) and its member music companies. The RIAA is a trade association whose member companies create, manufacture, and distribute approximately ninety (90) percent of all legitimate music sold in the United States.”

If you don’t stop downloading the illegal music, you probably WON’T get sued, BUT they might actually slow down your connection–or disconnect you altogether. WOW. Pretty drastic, huh? What would you do if they did? Call tech support and tell them you REALLY won’t do it again?! Aside from the “casual” downloader, the RIAA still says they reserve the right to go after people that upload a lot of the copyrighted music or people that don’t stop the downloading even after they have been warned.

Another interesting “possibility” written in a Yahoo! article:

Say your ISP catches you sharing tunes via P2P. No problem—download away! But when you get your next cable bill, you’ll find the itemized songs added to your monthly charge, kind of like an iTunes bill.

Uhh… yeah . I can’t say I’ve never downloaded an MP3 online before, but that would be uber-extreme. Go RIAA??? I think the whole direct-negotiating with the ISP thing is just a huge mess in itself. I never saw in my contract when I initially signed up where it read they were monitoring what I was downloading and where I was downloading from and change my service accordingly. This whole thing looks exactly like Google trying to get direct contracts with ISPs to make Google’s services faster and break “net neutrality”.