Petteri Pyyny
20 Apr 2004 5:54
Recording Industry Association of America has announced that they have withdrawn their amnesty offer for P2P pirates who confess their "sins".
RIAA announced the amnesty offer back in September, 2003. The deal offered an amnesty from RIAA's prosecution if P2P pirates confessed to the RIAA their copyright infringements and also signed a contract where they promised not to participate in illegal file sharing ever again. However, the offer raised quite lot criticism from various organizations, namely from the EFF, as it didn't grant a full amnesty -- individual record labels were still allowed to sue the person who signed an amnesty deal even that the RIAA itself wouldn't sue them. Organization was also sued in California over the amnesty offer -- California resident sued the organization, claiming that the offer consituted as a fraudulent business practice as RIAA can't have powers where it could offer an actual amnesty in the courtrooms for people who signed amnesty contracts.
"The RIAA has concluded that the program is no longer necessary or appropriate, and has voluntarily withdrawn it," the RIAA's lawyers told. According to the RIAA, 1108 people opted for the amnesty deal and it plans to honor their contracts.
Source: The Register