Looks like the RIAA finally got some sense

According to this article on Wired, the RIAA is giving up on suing people to stop file-sharing, instead shifting to a strategy of working with the ISPs to ban people who file share. While at first this may sound like good news, it seems more like a Pyrrhic victory, as this method will enable the RIAA to punish alleged file-sharers without having to go through due process.

However, the biggest beneficiary of the new deal is the RIAA itself, which has seen its investigative techniques questioned and suffered key setbacks in court while paying extensive attorneys' fees to pursue cases through the normal legal channels.
Due process has been prohibitively expensive for the RIAA. The organization has long sought a more efficient way to exert pressure on suspected file sharers, and these new agreements will grant that wish. The organization saves money and can pressure many more suspected file sharers, all without filing a single subpoena.

Perhaps one of these days they'll figure out that if they offered music online for its actual value, they'd make more money, but hey, what do I know? And no TWM reader is going to participate in illegal downloading anyway, so no fear, right?