Following the RIAA's recent announcement that it's going to stop suing individuals for pirating music and will instead ask ISPs to crack down on file sharers, Jerry Scroggin, who runs the small ISP Bayou Internet and Communications, says he expects the RIAA to pay for that kind of support.
"Scroggin's case underscores a potential obstacle for the RIAA's plan to enlist the help of ISPs," writes CNET's Greg Sandoval. "Small companies like his are innocent bystanders in the music industry's war on copyright infringement. Nonetheless, they are asked to help enforce copyright law free of charge. Many of them can't afford it."
"It costs both time and money to do things like pay technicians to sift through traffic logs, especially when users can spoof IPs and otherwise obfuscate their activity," writes Ars Technica's David Chartier. "Complicating matters further, Scroggin says that P2P use doesn't carry the same sense of urgency that, say, child porn traffickers or gun-happy teens do. Spending long hours to stop what may not even be a crime, only to pick up the tab in full, is simply not within a small ISP's budget."
