RIAA sends 'informational' notes to thousands of file swappers

LOS ANGELES (RIAA) - The recording industry - utilizing the chat functions housed in popular file-swapping software like Kazaa and Grokster - says it has sent hundreds of thousands of warnings to people it claims are offering copyrighted materials online.

"When you offer music on these systems, you are not anonymous and you can easily be identified," said the message in part, which reportedly has been sent to about 200,000 people to date. The Recording Industry Association of America began the program on Tuesday morning (4/29), and plans to send the message to millions of file-swappers in the coming weeks.

"The music industry's instant-message campaign is designed to inform people that distributing or downloading copyrighted music on peer-to-peer networks is illegal, that they are not anonymous when they do it, and that they risk legal penalties if they engage in this illegal activity," RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a statement.

Sharman Networks, which distributes Kazaa software, said in a statement that the music industry is attacking "some of its most loyal customers," and could be violating privacy rights and Kazaa's terms of service.

The RIAA has been ratcheting up its anti-piracy campaign in recent weeks. In March, the organization sent to about 300 companies letters that outlined lists of music files that it clamed were being offered on their employees' computers.

In February, the RIAA and the Motion Picture Association of America began distributing to more than 1,000 U.S. companies a brochure that warned of the dangers of Internet piracy.

The RIAA is an organization that lobbies on behalf of major music companies, including AOL Time Warner, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Bertelsmann AG.