RIAA Reaches Settlements With 52 of 261 Sued for Copyright Infringement

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 30, 2003 - 9:46am.

Washington -- The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has settled 52 of the 261 lawsuits it filed against users of file-sharing networks for copyright infringement. Defense lawyers familiar with some cases told the Associated Press that settlement payments varied from around $2,500, to up to $10,000 in one instance. "It's a small enough number that it doesn't make economic sense to hire an attorney to litigate these," attorney Daniel N. Ballard, whose firm is representing several of the defendants, told AP. "I'm not surprised that ... people have been intimidated into signing this." The RIAA has said it intends to file "hundreds" more lawsuits against alleged file-swappers, but told a Senate Governmental Affairs subcommittee hearing held by Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) on Tuesday that it will now send notification letters to the file-swappers whose identities it subpoenas, encouraging settlements before it files a lawsuit.
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