The US record industry has begun issuing ‘cease and desist’ orders to p2p firms as it steps up its campaign to curtail music file sharing.
The Recording Industry Association of America has sent letters to seven companies, which it declined to name. Consequently WinMX.com has stopped operating while the New York offices of eDonkey have been reported to be closed. Both are believed to have received the RIAA letter, which demand immediate action.
‘We demand that you immediately cease-and-desist from enabling and inducing the infringement of RIAA member sound recordings,’ it states. ‘If you wish to discuss pre-litigation resolution of these claims against you, please contact us immediately.’
Although closing the companies will not stamp out file sharing overnight, it will mean that potential sharers can no longer download the necessary software.
The RIAA’s action follows the recent court ruling which said that p2p software makers can be held liable for the swapping of copyrighted files using their applications.
A number of them are currently holding talks with record labels about setting up authorised p2p services.
Such services will scan shared files to check that they match files supplied by the labels before allowing them to be shared. If the user chooses to share a file they will then be charged.
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