Just how are those 18,000+ RIAA lawsuits against music lovers going, anyway? From the very beginning, the Recording Industry Association Of America has run into criticism over its heavy-handed legal tactics, suing young children and elderly grandparents alike in their blind enthusiasm to "catch the criminals." Sometimes it’s been just damn laughable, like when they accused 66-year-old Sarah Ward of running the Kazaa P2P program and illegally sharing over 2,000 songs, including "I’m A Thug" by Trick Daddy.

Seems that Ms. Ward owns and barely operates a Mac (which doesn’t run the Kazaa software) and has no children/grandchildren in the house who might have done the dastardly deed. When her attorneys requested that the RIAA dismiss their lawsuit as a case of obvious "mistaken identity," the music biz stormtroopers did so begrudgingly. "Please note, however, that we will continue our review of the issues you raised and we reserve the right to refile the complaint against Mrs. Ward if and when circumstances warrant," Colin J. Zick, the Foley Hoag lawyer representing the RIAA, wrote to Ward’s attorney. Yeah, they’ll refile the suit when Ms. Ward develops a love of gangsta rap, eh?

The latest case of "mistaken identity" comes from Chicago's Paul Wilke, who shocked the shit out of the industry by hitting them with the legal equivalent of a "sucker punch." Wilke, sued by the RIAA in the case Elektra vs. Wilke, was accused by the industry of sharing songs over a P2P network, of course. Wilke, however, refused to settle, and instead came out fighting. In court documents, he countered that he was not the "Paule Wilke" [sic] they were looking for, that he owned no file sharing software and that he owned none of the songs they accused him of sharing. Asking the court for a summary judgement, Wilke surmised that the industry’s traditional practice of using a name, IP address and a list of allegedly "illegally" shared songs did not constitute enough evidence to carry the suit forward.

This tactic caught the RIAA legal "dream team" completely off guard. After all, most people settled up front to avoid the risk of an expensive trial, they didn’t fight back. Flustered, the RIAA responded to Wilke’s claims with a motion of its own. As reported by Ars Technica, the industry filed "a motion for expedited discovery, indicating that it did not have enough evidence with which to fight the motion for summary judgment, and requested authorization for a search of Wilke's computer in an attempt to find ‘evidence of copyright infringement on the defendant's hard drive.’" When this tactic didn’t fly, the industry agreed to dismissal with "prejudice," meaning once again that they can file suit against whenever they feel like doing so.

Since September 2003, when the recording industry began suing its own customers, there have been over 18,000 suits filed against music lovers. It’s hard to tell exactly how many suits there have been ‘cause the RIAA has been cagey about the numbers and haven’t issued a press release crowing about the latest lawsuits since March 2006. As reported by Ars Technica in the Wilke article, however, "since the RIAA began filing lawsuits against suspected file sharers in 2003, not a single one has gone all the way to trial. In most cases, the defendants agree to write a four-figure check to the record labels to avoid a drawn-out court case. However, some of the accused are fighting back, and in some cases, it appears that the RIAA is dropping cases to avoid the possibility of losing."

That hasn’t stopped the RIAA’s global brethren, however. Ars Technica also reports that the IFPI, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, recently filed 8,000 lawsuits against alleged file-sharing music lovers in 17 countries, including Brazil, Mexico, Germany and Ireland. The industry will continue to try and bankrupt families and individuals on a global basis with frivolous lawsuits in a futile attempt to shore up their flagging CD sales.

What is important to remember is that this is a case of screwed-up priorities and the elevation of corporate rights above individual rights. For instance, in a related situation, in the state of Florida, it is a felony to own and operate a "pirate" radio station. Thanks to the National Association of Broadcasters (NA, your little 1-watt unlicensed station that you put together with spit and solder to broadcast rap songs to your neighbor’s radios can net you hard prison time next to real rapists, thugs and murderers. The RIAA and the Copyright Cartel have continued to push for even more draconian laws to ensure criminal penalties for interfering with their "intellectual property."

Keep up on the industry’s behind-the-scenes hijinx through web sites like the aforementioned Ars Technica technology journal, People To People Net and the Recording Industry vs. The People legal blog, which includes a complete list of industry lawsuits and what’s going on with them. Boycott The RIAA and the companies that support this terrorist organization, and when all else fails, launch a Darknet!