RIAA Sent Out Many Erroneous Takedown Letters

from the so-sorry dept

Yesterday we had the story of a wrongful DMCA "takedown" notice from the RIAA - where they accused some folks at Penn State with running a server that had copyrighted materials, when, in fact, they didn't. In responding to that article, the RIAA said claimed that they've sent thousands of these letters and this was the "first error" they had ever noticed. Today they admitted they were lying. The article apparently generated some interest from others who have received "apology" letters from the RIAA, and now the RIAA says that instead of "one" apology letter, they've actually sent 24 withdrawal letters, though there's some evidence that there are plenty more than that. The RIAA also admitted that they don't actually listen to the various files they see online to make sure they're really infringing works. I wonder how long until the RIAA ends up sending themselves (or someone working for them) a cease-and-desist letter for putting up a spoof file? Anyway, in one example in this latest article, it appears that not only did they not listen to any files, but they don't even proofread their own letters for obvious mistakes. The letter read accused a specific server of offering "approximately 0 sound files for download. Many of these files contain recordings owned by our member companies, including songs by such artists as Creed." It's the new math, RIAA-style, I guess.

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