Round 3: RIAA sues more file swappers

Sends out warnings too

The RIAA has filed suit against 41 people in a third wave of legal actions against file traders accused of swapping music illegally through peer-to-peer networks such as KaZaA.

The lobby group, which represents the major music labels, has also warned another 90 people that it may sue them.

The RIAA is targeting high-volume uploaders - people who make songs available for others to download. The 41 snared in this current round of suits have each uploaded around 1,000 songs, an RIAA spokesman told Reuters.

The RIAA has sued almost 400 Americans since September. It has obtained the names of supposedly anonymous file traders through a successful legal strategy to force ISPs to hand over names. Some ISPs, notably Verizon and SBC, have fought the RIAA in the courts, but to date, the decisions have all gone the RIAA's way.

The RIAA says it has made monetary settlements with 220 P2P file traders and that 1,000 people have taken advantage of a recent amnesty to foreswear unauthorised music copying. ®