The new RIAA campaign will search for a list of several hundred popular songs and automatically send an instant message to any person who appears to be offering one of them, Sherman said. The group expects to send about 1m of the messages per week. "It appears that you are offering copyrighted music to others from your computer," the message will read in part. "Distributing or downloading copyrighted music on the Internet without permission from the copyright owner is ILLEGAL. When you offer music on these systems, you are not anonymous and you can easily be identified." The campaign, dubbed "Music United", follows earlier industry education efforts that have enlisted high-profile artists for TV commercials and print advertisements portraying file swapping as theft, and as harmful to musicians. Contacting file swappers directly, through their own medium, may have more effect, Sherman said. "It's different when you get a message that pops up on your screen that says, 'We know who you are, and we know what you're doing,'" Sherman said. Although the computers sending the messages will likely keep log files indicating who has been contacted, the RIAA does not intend to link that information to enforcement efforts, Sherman said. The trade association has actively sought information from ISPs about the identity of individual file swappers, and is in the midst of a legal battle with Verizon Communications over one of those requests. The RIAA was joined by representatives from other music-related trade associations and individual musicians who praised the new campaign. "An artist doesn't wake up in morning and say, 'I'm going to record a song and everyone can copy it for free,'" said Thomas Lee, president of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM). "I don't think we have a clear understanding from those who are doing this that it is illegal, and it is our responsibility to make sure that everyone who does this knows." Sharman Networks, the company that distributes the popular Kazaa software, declined to say whether it believed the RIAA was acting in violation of any laws or user agreements, but said that the RIAA was attacking some of record companies' "most loyal customers". "Sharman Networks has no objections to legitimate efforts to stop copyright infringement by users of P2P software," a statement released by the company read. "We strenuously object to efforts outside the law, in violation of user agreements, or in violation of the privacy rights of millions of P2P users worldwide to indiscriminately spam, mislead or confuse."
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