In case you were fooled lately into thinking that the RIAA and the rest of the Content Cartel were going to pursue a policy other than "Sue All the World, Sue All the Children" please permit the blog "Recording Industry vs The People", maintained by NYC lawyers Ty Rogers and Ray Beckerman, to adjust your reality.

The blog has posted a letter appearntly leaked from the RIAA. In this letter the Cartel enforcement arm attempts to cajole ISPs into maintaining subscriber ISP records for 180 days. To make its lawsuits go more smoothly, of course. In exchange for shutting the hell up and turning over data promptly the ISP's customers get a promise of a $1000 discount for payment prior to lawsuit being filed. It's not at all clear to me why any sane ISP would sign on to this deal since it means more work and more risk for them, not to mention the exposure of being counter-sued by irate customers for turning over records.

You can read a brief summary on the lawyer's blog, and extensive commentary on the various links below the entry. The gist is still the same - the RIAA wants more suits, faster suits, more settlements, and fewer embarrassing publicity gaffes. I can't exactly blame them for wanting these things, but I'd rather they realized that they haven't made any difference in the past 7+ years of suing their customers and they're not going to make a difference if they spend another 77 years suing their customers.