Posted on: Monday, April 26, 2004

BUSINESS BRIEFS
Download suits scaring some

Advertiser Staff and News Services

NEW YORK — Driven largely by fears of copyright lawsuits, more than 17 million Americans, or 14 percent of adult Internet users, have stopped downloading music over the Internet, a survey finds.

But the overall percentage of people who say they do so has inched back up since November, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said in a study yesterday.

A third of the former downloaders — nearly 6 million — say they stopped because of lawsuits filed by the recording industry against more than 1,000 users.

Many of the lawsuits have led to settlements of thousands of dollars each. Legally, recording labels can demand $150,000 per song for copyright infringement.