RIAA gets personal over music downloads

The Recording Industry Association of America has sent 'cease-and-desist' letters to five people who it suspects of illegally offering massive amounts of copyrighted music through peer-to-peer networks.

The RIAA learned of the swappers' identities after a protracted legal battle with Verizon Communications, which unsuccessfully fought attempts to unmask its subscribers, citing concerns about privacy and legal liability.

Four of the five individuals who the letters targeted are the Verizon subscribers involved in the legal case. An RIAA representative said on Thursday that the fifth recipient is a subscriber of internet service provider EarthLink, which agreed to turn over the individual after an appeals court panel ordered Verizon to unveil the identities of its piracy-suspected subscribers earlier this month.

The RIAA would not identify the suspects' names, nor would it comment on whether the subscribers had responded to the letters or whether it planned to follow up with further legal action.

Lisa M Bowman writes for News.com