So, did the RIAA score a victory? Or lose another battle in the PR war?

[RawAlex]

Originally Posted by griffin8r

See, now this is the kind of reasoning I was looking for in the original question. How does the PR work in RIAA's favor?

So you believe the scare tactic will work on all the soccer moms out there with kids online all the time and make them start snooping on their kids computers to make sure they aren't the next ones being hauled into court...

My feeling is that the current situation has most people thinking that downloading music is without risk - financial, legal, or moral. A judgement like this starts to create some financial risk, inplies legal risk, and might even hit a few people on the morals too.

Right now we have widespread fiel sharing because people think they won't get caught. It's sort of like a highway when everyone knows there are never any cops. Over time, the speeds keep going up, until everyone is running along at top speed. The first time someone seems a cop giving out tickets, they might slow down a bit. See a cop every day in the same spot, and you will slow down there every day, even after the cop is gone, just in case.

A few more people facing hefty fines, and suddenly the winds will shift.