At Congressional hearings yesterday, the RIAA announced that it was ceasing its campaign of "sue first and ask questions later" in its crusade against American filesharers and would begin to write letters first before launching litigation.

"It's too bad that it took episodes like the mistaken lawsuit against the 65-year-old grandmother Sarah Ward and a Congressional inquiry to bring the RIAA to follow the basic practice of contacting a potential defendant and attempting to resolve matters informally before suing," noted EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "Now that they've taken this first step, the RIAA should take a second and more important one that could end this entire matter tomorrow -- offer all Americans the opportunity to continue filesharing by paying a monthly fee."