Scroggin’s case underscores a potential obstacle for the RIAA’s plan to enlist the help of ISPs. Small companies like his are innocent bystanders in the music industry’s war on copyright infringement. Nonetheless, they are asked to help enforce copyright law free of charge. Many of them can’t afford it, he said. Significant resources must be devoted to chasing down suspected file sharers and there’s a real cost to that. After talking to Scroggin, it sounds as if the entertainment sector might also have taken a heavy-handed approach to dealing with ISPs in the past and there might be some bad blood built up.
“They have the right to protect their songs or music or pictures,” Scroggin said. “But they don’t have the right to tell me I have to be the one protecting it. I don’t want anyone doing anything illegal on my network, but we don’t work for free.”
