Industry Indicators

In the ever-shifting battle between unauthorized music downloaders and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the latest salvo comes from the so-called “bandits.” In June, the same month in which the RIAA vowed to sue those it believes are illegally downloading music, a group of P2P network users announced a program that prevents the RIAA from knowing who’s doing the downloading.

The MP2P network (short for Manolito Peer-to-Peer), on which a new P2P group known as “Blubster” is based, is made up of more than 200,000 users sharing more than 52 million files, a spokesman for the group says. The P2P update includes a new, streamlined file distribution method that disassociates transfers from specific users.

Downloaders also have formed their own lobbying group known as the Distributed Computing Industry Association to unite in their battle against the RIAA.