The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released a report claiming that the lawsuits brought on by the RIAA are not effective in lowering the usage of P2P file sharing networks. (PDF)

Are the lawsuits working? Has the arbitrary singling out of more than 20,000 random American families done any good in restoring public respect for copyright law? Have the lawsuits put the P2P genie back in the bottle or restored the record industry to its 1997 revenues?

After four years of threats and litigation, the answer is a resounding no.

Utilizing figures from P2P monitor service Big Champagne, the EFF study states that the amount of P2P file sharing users has continued to increase despite the threat of lawsuits.  In September 2003, when the lawsuits began, there were 4,319,182 users of P2P networks.  In June 2005, there were 8,888,436 users. Currently, there is an estimated 9.35 million users. 

In addition, an estimated 15 million U.S. households downloaded from P2P networks in 2006.

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