The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) will reportedly
announce an amnesty program next week aimed at individuals willing to
admit having downloaded and shared copyrighted music files. Those who
sign the amnesty form–admitting their past activity and promising to
delete copyrighted files and not to engage in future illegal file
trading–would be shielded from prosecution by the RIAA. The deal will
not be available to any of the more than 1,500 people for whom the RIAA
has already served subpoenas. Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic
Frontier Foundation noted that because the RIAA does not represent all
copyright owners, the agreement would not protect individuals from
prosecution by other copyright holders. The amnesty offer, von Lohmann
said, is “not the kind of agreement that most people’s lawyers will
embrace.”
Sounds like something out of the old Soviet Bloc to me…..