A U.S. music industry trade group on Tuesday said it has sued 482 more people for copyright infringement in a continuation of its anti-piracy campaign.
Including the latest suits, the Recording Industry Association of America has now sued 3,429 individuals since last September as it seeks to discourage music fans from copying and trading songs through peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa and LimeWire.
The RIAA’s newest round of legal action includes copyright infringement lawsuits against 213 individuals in St. Louis, 55 in Denver and 206 in Washington, D.C. and eight in New Jersey.
The RIAA again used the “John Doe” litigation process, which is used to sue defendants whose names are not known.
The trade group began using the “John Doe” method in January after an appeals court ruled that Internet service providers like Verizon Communications do not have to provide customers’ names to recording-industry investigators.
The RIAA plans to discover the identities of those it targeted in lawsuits through court-issued subpoenas.
Despite the suits, millions of people continue to use peer-to-peer networks to copy music, movies and other files directly from each others’ hard drives.
“Illegal downloading continues to cause enormous harm to the entire music community,” said Steven Marks, general counsel of the RIAA. “We must stay on the path of education, enforcement, and offering great legal services.”