RIAA Drops Evidence-Gathering Company

The Recording Industry Association of America has dumped the company it used to help gather evidence for mass lawsuits filed against individuals for illegally uploading copyrighted music, according to the Wall St. Journal. The RIAA used a company called MediaSentry to search the Internet for people who uploaded large amounts of music. The move indicates that the music industry is serious about following through with its recently announced plans to curtail its five-year-old strategy of filing mass lawsuits for copyright infringement. Since 2003, the RIAA - a trade organization that represents Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI Group and Warner Music - has sued approximately 35,000 for music sharing.