Article from Boing Boing:

The number of Americans targetted by entertainment industry lawsuits nearly doubled this month, as the the US Copyright Group (“an ad hoc coalition of independent film producers and with the encouragement of the Independent Film & Television Alliance”) brought suit against 20,000 BitTorrent users. 30,000 more lawsuits are pending, bringing the total number of US entertainment industry lawsuit defendants up to 80,000 (when you include the 30,000 victims of the RIAA).

This beatings-will-continue-until-morale-improves gambit is puzzling to me. It seems likely to me that most of these defendants will settle for several thousand dollars (regardless of their guilt) rather than risk everything by hiring a lawyer to defend themselves. But does the “US Copyright Group” really think that Americans will go back to the mall with their credit-cards in hand once their friends’ lives have been ruined by litigation?

Being someone who gets the majority of my music from places like BitTorrent, this makes me very nervous to continue using file sharing programs. I tend to subscribe to the attitude that it won’t happen to me, but 30,000 pending lawsuits is substantial amount of people and makes me think twice about ignoring the truth. Maybe if music wasn’t so damned expensive maybe people wouldn’t resort to this. Who feels like paying $1.29 per song on iTunes? Or even $14.99 for jewel case CD? I know I don’t. Things needs to change from the top-up, record companies have too much power. Music should democratic.