After filing at least 1,500 subpoenas demanding the identities of file traders, the Recording Industry Association of America carried through with its legal threats and slapped lawsuits on 261 of these people on Sept. 7. The RIAA charged them with "egregious" copyright infringement, which it claims could be worth millions of dollars.

The first person to settle one of these suits was not one of the "major offenders" whom the music industry initially claimed to be targeting, but a 12-year-old New York girl, Brianna LaHara. Her family coughed up $2,000 to get the RIAA lawyers off their back.

Under the law, confirmed copyright violators can be held liable for up to $150,000 per copyrighted music file.  The RIAA claims that most people sued were offering 1,000 songs on a P2P network. Yale University professor Timothy Davis said he was sued after downloading 500 songs.

The RIAA says that there will be thousands more such lawsuits over the next few months with the stated aim of stopping P2P users from offering copyrighted music. As I have stated in this column many times before, these lawsuits will not stop tens of millions of people around the world from trading music films and software online. According to Download.com, more than 2.8 million copies of Kazaa software were downloaded in the first week of September. Streamcast Networks says interest in its Morpheus software has risen over the past several months.

These lawsuits are further complicated by the fact that in many families, one Internet account is used by a number of people and the account holder many never have downloaded a single file. Richardson, Texas grandfather Durwood Pickle said he was sued after his teenage grandchildren downloaded music onto his computer. Those running wireless networks may also find themselves sued for the actions of anonymous people piggybacking on their open Internet connection.

The U.S. Congress will soon be holding hearings on the subpoena provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) which has provided legal cover for the RIAA's subpoenas. Ninety-five organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and major ISPs, have sent letters to members of Congress saying the DMCA invades the privacy of Internet users without due process of law. Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), who says he "doesn't want to make criminals out of 60 million kids," is supporting congressional hearings into how the RIAA has identified and tracked the people it is suing.