When I first saw this story the other day I didn't even want to put it up, it's getting to be SO OLD in terms of coverage. But the new twist that's worth considering, as noted by AP, is that the RIIA has now filed the newest cases against "John Doe" defendants - identified only by their numeric Internet protocol addresses, with hopes that the legal proceedings will allow them to identify downloaders individually for further action. Previous attempts to crack Verizon's ISP customers without specific suits based on copyright laws had failed. The jury is far from in on whether the RIAA's actions have been successful in stemming downloads of copyrighted material - do fewer people download or do fewer just admit to it? - but the certain thing is that the concept of copyright enforcement based on established law, even the Millenium Copyright Act, is up against the hard realities of electronic content distribution that both copyright law and the industry that relies upon it have ignored for decades at their peril, as noted in our recent news analysis on corporate content piracy. The laws may be appropriate and just, but the publishing of electronic content online has created a vast ocean of original and valuable content that is NOT protected effectively by copyright law, including content from published databases to forums and weblogs. It's good that people with commercial interests in content are addressing their needs to ensure revenues, but the larger question of what it means to have only commercial publishers being able to protect content effectively while valuable content generated by other institutions, individuals and social networks is exposed to use and piracy looms as a larger issue to be addressed. The RIAA has opened this confrontation that may have far wider consequences to commercial content distribution than they may have imagined.