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An Analysis Of The Recording Industry's Litigation Strategy Against Direct Infringers, Kristina Groennings

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

In the fall of 2003, suing direct infringers may have been the only recourse left to the recording industry. The industry faced a long-term trend of a decrease in sales, due largely to file-sharing. The decline in album sales following the inception of Napster, from 1999 through 2002, had been the most dramatic in the past 30 years. CD sales were down from $13.2 billion in 2000 to $11.2 billion in 2003. The industry's victory in Napster was fleeting, as publicity over the issue increased awareness of peer-to-peer (P2P) technology and users flocked to decentralized networks like Grokster and KaZaa, …