At least 871 file traders can expect their lives to get significantly more interesting soon as the RIAA continues its quest to identify heavy file traders. According to reports that surfaced over the weekend, the RIAA has won approximately 871 federal subpoenas, with an additional 75 being generated daily. The push comes after a legal battle versus Verizon where the Recording Industry used certain provisions of the controversial DMCA legislation to force the telco to reveal file trader identities.

ISP's were concerned that the court victory would open the flood gates to a bombardment of similar subpoenas; fears that apparently were well founded.

With Verizon's latest legal thumping, the job of enforcing copyright has begun to teeter and fall into the lap of network providers. ISP's would like nothing more than to remain invisible in the process, hoping to leave the bad PR generated by prosecuting users in the lap of the RIAA. That's in part because, the entertainment industry has charged, the ISP's have been making a back room killing off the lure of broadband file trading services as a premier reason for broadband adoption, and aren't particular interested in seeing things change.

But changing they are. With this latest salvo of subpoenas, the reality of prosecution is becoming tangibly more real. File traders who for the past several years received little more than a thump on the wrist, may now find themselves in court, given they download enough Simpson's episodes to get the attention of the entertainment industry. Though light file traders apparently aren't being totally overlooked, several of the subpoenas (which should be sent out in the next 8 weeks) will be headed to users who were logged as sharing as few as five songs.

As these lawyer "nastygrams" began to circulate more frequently in years past, users began to turn their venom on their provider, believing they were being monitored by their ISP. The reality is that "p2p intelligence" companies like BayTSP scour file trading networks for significant offenders, then report both the files traded and the IP address back to their RIAA/MPAA masters. The music and film industry in turn send a letter to the ISP, whose only responsibility had been to pass that letter on to the offender.

Now that the precedent has been made that the DMCA can be used to force an ISP to reveal a trader's personal information, the RIAA hopes that by suing enough users, the ensuing fear will clamp their financial blood loss. The bad PR created by users who have their identities revealed could also lead to greater anti-trading measures among the ISP's themselves.

But as we've mentioned in the past, traders have already begun working on file trading networks that not only deal with the flood of RIAA created phony files, but prevent companies like BayTSP from obtaining their IP addresses (though the RIAA has some plans of their own). Some users are planning organized protests as well, though with the law on the RIAA's side, the "I'm tired of paying $20 for an album" argument isn't likely to hold much sway when push comes to shove.