The RIAA Gets Caught Pirating Music, TV Shows and Software

If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s hypocrites – and right now, there’s none bigger than the RIAA. The Recording Industry Association of America is a stranger to almost no one, as it’s become famous not for being the backbone to the music industry at large, but for its unparalleled greed and cut-throat tactics… in gist, the RIAA is filled with bullies.

This is the organization that last year won a case against a woman where she’d have to pay $1,500,000 for downloading a total of 24 songs. Well, of course I should mention that the RIAA had a heart in this case, because the full value of $150,000 per song could have brought the real total up to $3.6 million.

But I digress. A couple of weeks ago, a site called YouHaveDownloaded was launched. What it does is scan your IP address and tells you what torrents you’ve downloaded, if any. As I’ve discovered, this tool isn’t accurate for someone on a dynamic IP address (like me), as some days it will tell me that I downloaded some things (which I didn’t), while most days it says I’m clean. Nonetheless, for static IP addresses, it’d be more accurate.

So it’s interesting that one of the IP addresses from within the RIAA has been ousted for downloading a lot of pirated TV shows and series. These include seasons of Dexter and Law and Order. Well, at least the folks there aren’t downloading music, right? Actually… they are. There were records of Jay-Z and Kanye West albums being downloaded, and even a tool used for mass tag-renaming.

Really? The RIAA is the biggest bully of a corporation out there, suing anyone it can, and then within its own walls, music is being downloaded illegally? I’m sure even with these findings, the RIAA won’t combat them. After all, IP addresses can change, right? If only that excuse worked for most of the people the organization has sued.

It would be interesting however if this information could be used in a court case as a type of defense. If the RIAA has been proven to download pirated content, it can’t very well sue others for the same thing – can it?