This is a really funny and sad story all at the same time. Funny because the RIAA surprised 200k thieves on the Grokster and Kazaa file stealing – er, sorry – sharing networks with an instant message telling them that they were stealing music and could face legal action. I think that’s extremely funny. The sad part is the reaction that so many people are having to it. One quote from the story is

“Way to go, RIAA. Sue and threaten the public, your customers. I think I’ll go and download[…]”

Yeah. Customers. Generally, customers pay for products and don’t steal them. But that’s a point that gets lost on a lot of folks. The responses on /. are predictably asinine…