In the year of the failed SOPA and PIPA legislation, a recently leaked report indicates that the RIAA’s Deputy General Counsel did not believe those bills would have been effective in dealing with music piracy.
RIAA CEO Cary Sherman wrote and spoke out in support of SOPA and PIPA at the time: “legislation that if passed would have removed infringing websites from the United States Internet,” according to TorrentFreak. “But quietly behind closed doors earlier this year one of the RIAA’s most senior lawyers admitted that the legislation would not have been effective against online piracy.”
In the leaked presentation document, RIAA Deputy General Counsel Victoria Sheckler admits that because of the viral online opposition to the bills, they were “essentially dead.”
But the document said more. According to TorrentFreak, “perhaps of most interest is the confession that even if they had passed, SOPA and PIPA would have been of little help to the music industry.”
The RIAA is instead focusing on the “six strikes” copyright enforcement, believing it is “robust enough to have a positive effect with its ‘consumer friendly’ approach.”
“Evidence exists that most users would modify their behavior if alerted to the risks associated with using certain P2P services and/or made to believe they will face consequences if caught infringing,” writes Sheckler.
According to a “Memorandum of Understanding, the RIAA is clearly aware that if they’ve issued infringement notices against an account holder six times, then that user has a good chance of being viewed as a ‘repeat infringer’ by their ISP — at least if prompted to do so by the RIAA” and could therefore suffer penalties including a slowed connection, possible disconnection, etc.
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