Washington - Dec 22, 2008 - For several years, the Recording Industry Association of America has filed lawsuits against individuals in an effort to thwart illegal file sharing. This effort has proven to be laborious and a PR nightmare for the organization as it pursues individuals for copyright infringement. While not giving up the fight entirely, the RIAA is going to try a different approach: work with Internet service providers to thwart the illegal activity.

According to several business publications, the RIAA has developed agreements with major ISPs to alert the provider that a user is uploading unauthorized content. The user gets three strikes, after which, the ISP will deliver the RIAA warning or directly ask the user to stop that activity. If the user continues he will receive continued warnings. The RIAA then wants the ISP to reduce the offender's Internet access data rate. If the user continues to persist, the RIAA wants the ISP to disable the user's Internet access.

Apparently a similar action has been considered in France by its Parliament.