How is the RIAA catching people?
The record companies have joined together to quietly keep an eye on the popular file-sharing networks and have used software to scan file names to find out which file sharers have the most copy-right infringing files. It’s not that different than how spammers get potential email addresses. After discerning which file sharer to target, investigators have been employed to keep track of the time, date, and files shared. Once companies get a body of evidence, they again use the same kind of software that the spammers use to get the computer’s unique Internet Protocol (IP) address and the name of the Internet Service Provider (ISP). ISPs can be subpoenaed for the names/addresses of the subscribers attached to those IP addresses. With this information companies can issue the suit. Q. What about simple downloads? Will the RIAA start going after people who do that because it is illegal? A. Probably not for quite a while. It’s much harder to track down who is downloading especially because most
