RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has just announced that the termination of its use of the MediaSentry service had already happened. Why did the association do that? Mainly because MediaSentry was fooling unsuspecting users into visiting Web sites and downloading MP3s without authorization.

 

Last year, many states revoked the licenses of MediaSentry to operate in their states, with some law enforcement agencies providing RIAA members with cease and desist notices. RIAA also severed its ties to this service, and this information was already made known. A RIAA spokesperson said that this information would have become a news, and not a speculation, if someone had bothered to ask.

 

Furthermore, RIAA already switched to a Copenhagen-based service, called DtecNet, which does not list spoofing or other investigation tools as among the items in its arsenal. This service has managed to develop sophisticated scanning tools, enabling clients to monitor and estimate the threat-level posed by specific file sharing networks. This way, each client can decide its own online strategy and better evaluate the impact of piracy on their online business.

 

DtecNet seems to have been retained by RIAA members quite some time ago, as the company's software has been in use worldwide since 2004. At that time, it had claimed the capability to detect the identity of MP3 files by song signature, though not by legitimacy or illegitimacy.

RIAA has announced that it will continue its currently pending lawsuits against individuals suspected off trafficking in unlicensed tracks, though it would not pursue new cases. The association plans to work more closely with ISPs in order to identify possible sources of piracy.