GeneralDespite Lawsuits, P-to-P Use Still Growing
In 2006, 15 million U.S. households downloaded an unauthorized file using P-to-P (peer-to-peer) software, an 8 percent increase from 2005.
Recommend this story? Yes No Please Wait... If 20,000-plus lawsuits by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) aren't enough to show U.S. residents that the unauthorized sharing of music files will cause legal problems, now there's a US$222,000 jury verdict against a Minnesota woman.And still, the beat goes on.In 2006, 15 million U.S. households downloaded an unauthorized file using P-to-P (peer-to-peer) software, an 8 percent increase from 2005, according to The NPD Group Inc., a market research firm that tracks digital downloads.A jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota in Duluth ordered Jammie Thomas to pay $222,000 for sharing 24 songs using the Kazaa P-to-P software. In the first jury trial for one of the RIAA lawsuits, Thomas was found guilty of sharing songs owned by companies including Capitol Records Inc., Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Bros. Records Inc.Advocates of strong copyright law praised the jury's decision."It's unclear why this woman would compound one mistake, offering thousands of songs to strangers, with another one, turning down a settlement in favor of a trial in which she had no evidence to give," said Patrick Ross, executive director of the Copyright Alliance, an advocacy group representing the music industry and other copyright holders. "Hopefully, this will help more people to understand that these are illegal actions with real harms for songwriters... [ Read more on www.pcworld.com ]
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These services add voice recognition and results focused on meaning--but Microsoft's fresh-looking Tafiti engine may well make the biggest splash.