RIAA P2P Case Tally in Court Brief Differs With Estimates

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 29, 2009 - 10:49am.

Boston - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said in court documents filed this month that it had settled with 4,000 of the 18,000 people it contacted about their alleged infringements on file-sharing networks, although other estimates peg the total number of proceedings at nearly double that figure, Digital Music News reported.

P2PNet reported that the RIAA told the Kansas City Business Journal that it had sued 18,000 defendants as of March 2006; the group continued to file additional lawsuits for nearly two years.

The Wall Street Journal reported in December -- when the RIAA announced it would end its litigation campaign -- that it estimated the total number of legal proceedings brought against suspected file-swappers by the RIAA to be 35,000.

Digital Music News noted that the record label trade group "appears to be grossly underestimating, perhaps to soften its image to the court."

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2006/03/13/story2.html

http://snipurl.com/l4shn (PDF of RIAA filing)