Seventy-seven percent of all companies with 500 or more employees have p2p file swapping software in their corporate systems, says AssetMetrix Inc, a Canadian firm which among other things offers a service to 'help' corporations identify p2p activity on their computers.

"No company with more than 500 PCs was 'P2P Free' with average penetration rates ranging between 2.15% and 8.38%," says AssetMetrix, based in ttawa, Ontario. It apparently studied more than 175,000 PCs from more than 560 corporations from a, "broad cross-section of industry sectors".

Every company in its sample with more than 500 employees had at least one p2p app, says AssetMetrix.

The RIAA has been increased its pressure on corporations to crack down on employees' file-trading, sending letters to the Fortune 500 companies warning of legal risks, and even settling out of court for $1 million with one company where a large archive of copyrighted songs was found.

The time they get around to going after companies in mass droves will be never.

They get one here and there, meaning companies and consumers, but the hundreds of lawsuits may never happen, or will back fire on them if it hasn't already.

They have been threatening latly, but they have been threatening for 4 years, and what is there progress, definitly not in the direction they want

this "study" is probably all made up. imaginary. because if _i_ owned a corporation with 500 computers and some Firm wanted total access to them, i'd tell them to get out. confidential information, cost of employee time, security risks in letting strangers come into every office, potential tips to the BSA if something slipped by the IT staff... not happening. not for some piddly little "study".

It seems to me that a lot of people are in denial about the power of the RIAA. As Darth Vader said, "Don't underestimate the power of the Dark Side." ; )

Mercury,
Don't forget the power of the Force.

Merc:
I agree with you,BUT, every penny of their ability to wield power and influence, every lawyer buying cent, comes from the consumer's money. Let's show the arseholes what a drop in revenue is really like...BOYCOTT ALL RIAA REPRESENTED ARTISTS!

I agree Code. Boycotting is the only way these morons will listen. They think sales are down now? JUST WAIT!!!

I agree the RIAA may SEEM to have too much power Merc, but I hope anyone who is sued will simply ask for dismissal on the grounds of the 1992 Home Audio Recording Act (HARA). That would be the first motion I'd file immediately. The second would be a counter lawsuit seeking damages for suing and not allowing my rights as guaranteed unter the HARA, besides invasion of privacy. Let's see what happenes when an INDIVIDUAL uses the act, since Napster couldn't.

Lover, Code, I'm going to have to disagree about the Boycott being the only way they will listen, to them it will just be lost sales (if a few thousand boycotters really amount to any real quantifiable loss in sales), in which case they'll just blame it on file sharing and go after p2p users even harder. A boycott will only prolong our pain and will go completely unnoticed by the RIAA. Writing to your representatives and to the media, however will create exposure to the issue and may actually bring about real change. I guess we should probably just check out the action plan on the home page of this site and eff.org.

IMO, The RIAA needs to be very careful. Mass lawsuits could possibly lead them to the wrong person(s). Offending mass numbers of the general public is definitely putting themselves at risk. As silly as this sounds, just watch the news, there are ton of freaks out there who aren't quite dealing with a full deck. All it takes is for some Psycho to go on a rampage after being served legal papers for sharing a few MP3zzz.
Think it can't happen?

The RIAA has no power or control over the Indies. We can do whatever we want. Their silly rules and threats only apply to their own music.

They can only blame dropping sales on piracy for so long. They simply cannot afford to carry out their idle threats. It will cost them billions a year and will change nothing.

I agree that the thing to do is write to your congressmen. I've written to each and every U.S. Senator in the country.

Buy Indie music. Rosen, Sherman, Oppenheim and every other RIAA representative has been consistently lying in Congressional and other government hearings.

Sooner or later, they're gonna fall to the US Justice Department for restraint of trade and violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The RIAA is just a bunch of lying extortionist bastards who all will deserve the whooping they're going to take in court. Support the Webcaster Alliance -- They've laid down the gauntlet and it's called antitrust.

mercury42,

The RIAA may be powerful, but NEVER underestimate the power of the masses. No matter how many dollars and lobbying groups the labels have, they will never be able to defeat the masses of people that are against them. The RIAA would have done themselves justice by continuing to do their dirty work quietly-instead of trying to pull-off this Dirty-Harry, "sue 'em all" crap. They were hoping to coward the masses into downloading from their "legal" sites and to stop using P2P. Instead, the public is ticked-off and even more determined to fight back against them now-by boycotting them. The number of people who hate the RIAA will only continue to grow as their lawsuits draw near.

gdZiemann:
I think it might be cool to set up somewhere a place where everytime we buy a non RIAA CD. We could log on and list that we made that purchase vs a RIAA purchase, this would in turn prove that the drop in sales is not piracy but that we don't want the product anymore.

I haven't purchased a CD from the Big Five since the Napster hearings. Now I only buy independent bands, also I do not purchase RIAA music because of other entertainment out there, games, etc. which are of a better "bang for the buck" value.

Paulruss, here is why I continue to advocate boycotting. Here in my state, I have three people that I can write to who are "supposed" to represent me. Two thirds are in the pocket of big business ("MPAA/RIAA/et al"). They couldn't care less what I write them (although, as a member of EFF, I do all the writing they ask). In the past, I successfully organized a grassroots, national campaign to prevent legislation entered in the House and Senate from restricting interstate sales of martial arts training equipment. I dealt with the same arseholes that are appearing in the news (mostly dealing with their underlings) and what became extremely clear was that the main thing they care about is money, followed closely by power (money buys power and influence). This crap with the RIAA and the rest, is the tip of the legislative iceberg. The specific language of Patriot Act I (Passed) and Patriot Act II (pending and even more draconian) are all about watching each of us and controlling ALL of us through fear and intimidation. There is a coordinated effort to make the citizens functionaries of the State, instead of the other way around. They are trying to make "we the people" into a nation of people "of the State, by the State, and For the State". Look at the Total Information Awareness act (which they have renamed the "Terror Information Awareness" act, which would have the transactions and actions of each of us, monitored electronically to the maximum amount possible. Also, you have the TIPS program, which would have tried to turn us into a national of little snitches, turning in our neigbors like in Nazi Germany or Russia. We have Carnivore, Echelon, and God only knows how many other electonic monitoring programs going on covertly.

The government's complicity with promoting legislation favoring the ability of the media to look into your box, serves two purposes...they get lobbying money from the media, and they further desensitize each of us into accepting constant monitoring of our public and private affairs (in violaion of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution).

I am not saying we ONLY boycott RIAA. Of course we should always do all we can to preserve freedom for ourselves and our brothers and sisters. Ultimately, protecting the personal liberties of someone you hate protects yours as well.

But, it is a clear fact that money drives actions. Money is needed to file court cases, pay lawyers, pay off politicians, etc. You cut the money and Cary $herman will be powerless.

Since the RIAA gets money from the media companies and artists, we need to let the people who are producing the product (the artists) know that since they are the folks in whose name this is done, we are NOT going to buy or listen to any of their music until they withdraw from the RIAA and stop trying to make their own customers felons.

Let's say someone always goes to the concerts and buys the records of Group X (fictional). But they also download other, older and hard to get songs. Group X belongs to RIAA. RIAA finds this loyal supporter of Group X's music who maybe downloaded a few golden oldies. RIAA sues the person. That person can no longer buy the CDs of Group X, no longer buys concert tickets, or t-shirts. So, by supporting the actions of the RIAA, Group X hurts themselves.

At some point, the American public needs to get fired up, like in the movie where the character Howard says "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" (movie is Network).

Anyway, I really care about this issue.
I believe EACH of us needs to be a supporter of the EFF, we need to all write our congresspersons, erect websites against the RIAA, and of course, as my tagline to posts always says....
BOYCOTT THE BASTARDS!

I think most of us here support EFF. We support Lawrence Lessig. And many of us are CONSIDERING supporting Howard Dean. (Dean is "guest" blogging at Lessig's this week. We are awaiting candidate Dean's take on these issues...
but the simple fact that Dean is "guest" at the Lessig site says something in itself.)

Keep an eye on this next election.

AND PARTICIPATE THIS TIME!
(Most of us would rather download songs than vote, but THIS time your vote WILL matter!)

independentm, the first time I ever voted was in the last presidential election. the majority of people voted as i did, and still, the one with a brother who was governor of florida won...hmmm, makes one loose confidence in the voting system.
still, fight the evil, vote on!

BOYCOTT THE BASTARDS!

if you are not connected to the p2p system there is no way for them to find how many or what your mp3 files are right?

If your not connected to the p2p system you dont get to download anything anyway.

If the RIAA decides it has no other option, it will start sueing large numbers of p2p users. Its strictly their last resort, but it looks like they are preparing anyway. They dont want to suffer the public relations disaster, but they know that will set them back for a few years at most. P2P can potentially destroy them.

OK...How bout this? Is there an address we can email artists at and tell them that as long as they are with a major a label, I will NOT but anything they represent or support?

"Buy" rather.....

No, most major label artists can only be contected through their label to fiter out the huge amount of fan mail, along with the various insults and the occasional death threat

Check this out!

Next they will be trying to sue Google!
They might as well try and sue Microsoft too, but then again, Microsoft would probably kick their ass!

http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/archives/000 360.html