You might wonder why why the Recording Industry Association of America is going after Verizon, rather than the specific Verizon user who (they claim) is infringing their copyrights.

The RIAA isn't interested in playing whack-a-mole against users one at a time; they realize that that will have no effect whatsoever. They want Verizon and other ISPs to act on their behalf to cut off file sharing throughout their networks, all at once. They're looking to create a precedent to enable that.

The RIAA is also pushing for the authority to issue subpoenas to suspected copyright violators without having to go through all that tedious burden-of-proof, probable-cause, presumption-of-innocence nonsense.

I've never used Napster or Kazaa or any other file-swapping service; all my MP3s are legal. I'm not going to defend copyright infringement. But the RIAA is seriously overreaching, and I think it will cause both customers and artists to rebel against them.