Famous Lawsuits Against Illegal Downloading

The entertainment and media industry has been taking serious hits regarding illegal downloading of music and videos throughout the past decade. Various websites have been nabbed for providing individuals tools for downloading movies that are currently still in theaters, for downloading album after album of popular, mainstream music. Illegal downloading is one criminal action that has continued to climb in rate, even with the number of lawsuits going around. One of the most famous sets a lawsuits regarding illegal downloading was the RIAA lawsuits that occurred. The RIAA company had decided to take matters into their own hands regarding illegal downloading; this particular label threatened legal recourse and filed hundreds to thousands of illegal downloading lawsuits. In doing so, the company has received over a million dollars in settlements, but has spent over 64 million for lawsuits and investigative services. This was an issue of a record company going against the people. Another famous illegal downloading lawsuit was one which Metallica filed against Napster, because Napster had put their music up on the website and allowed for it to be downloaded, thus taking money away from them and lowering their sales. The basis of the lawsuits surrounded issues of copyright infringement and piracy. A settlement was eventually reached regarding the Metallica vs. Napster case; after the legal proceedings, Napster went back and renovated the way that it conducts business. Even now, more companies that are pirating music and movies are getting caught up in legal actions, and the trend appears to be continuing the same way.