The Recording Industry Association of America is looking into alternatives to massive lawsuits against music piracy – lawsuits frequently targeting students. Rather than pursue legal action against offenders, the RIAA has made an agreement with Internet Service Providers that has the ISPs deal with the problem. Once illegal fire sharing or downloading is detected, the ISP will send the user a notice informing him or her of the illegality of their action and asks them to stop. If the downloading and file sharing doesn’t stop, the ISP will eventually cut off the users internet. NY State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo brokered the arrangement over the summer in an effort to beat down the massive amount of RIAA related litigation tying up the court system.  The new system is meeting its own round of criticism, specifically around the methods used by the RIAA to detect IP addresses.  One University of Washington Study found numerous ‘false positives’ using the RIAA’s method and the new system currently has no system for a user to challenge accusations.

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