The "Happy Birthday To You" song police were on the prowl long before there was an internet. When not looking for unpaid performances of the happy birthday to you song they look for other violations of the copyright law such as playing unlicensed background music in a business or playing unlicensed music for customers on hold. They employ lawyers that were previously experts on pursuing slip and fall lawsuits. All of these demand letters have one thing in common. They figure out how much it would cost for an accused business to fight a lawsuit and then send them a bill for something less then that amount. The business submits to the extortion, writes a check and writes the cost off as a business expense. Unfortunately wrongly accused individual citizens do not have that luxury. Copyright law must be changed to require the RIAA and other copyright control agencies require to give alleged violators an opportunity to cease and desist before demanding monetary damages. Furthermore an ISP must be prohibited from disconnecting a customer's broadband service without due process by an independent agency. If an alleged violator receives a notice they would be stupid not to cease and desist. That would also stop the RIAA from shaking down innocent subscribers. If one Googles ASCAP and the Girl Scouts thew will find that ASCAP tried to shake down the Girl Scouts in 1996 for fees to sing copyrighted songs around their campfires. That action resulted in ASCAP getting reams of bad press. ASCAP finally relented and agreed to accept a token amount from the Girl Scouts so that ASCAP could maintain their copy-right.
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The "Happy Birthday To You" song police were on the prowl long before there was an internet. When not looking for unpaid performances of the happy birthday to you song they look for other violations of the copyright law such as playing unlicensed background music in a business or playing unlicensed music for customers on hold. They employ lawyers that were previously experts on pursuing slip and fall lawsuits. All of these demand letters have one thing in common. They figure out how much it would cost for an accused business to fight a lawsuit and then send them a bill for something less then that amount. The business submits to the extortion, writes a check and writes the cost off as a business expense. Unfortunately wrongly accused individual citizens do not have that luxury. Copyright law must be changed to require the RIAA and other copyright control agencies require to give alleged violators an opportunity to cease and desist before demanding monetary damages. Furthermore an ISP must be prohibited from disconnecting a customer's broadband service without due process by an independent agency. If an alleged violator receives a notice they would be stupid not to cease and desist. That would also stop the RIAA from shaking down innocent subscribers. If one Googles ASCAP and the Girl Scouts thew will find that ASCAP tried to shake down the Girl Scouts in 1996 for fees to sing copyrighted songs around their campfires. That action resulted in ASCAP getting reams of bad press. ASCAP finally relented and agreed to accept a token amount from the Girl Scouts so that ASCAP could maintain their copy-right. 