[bluGill]

> there's something about if you knowingly let someone use your copyright without demanding they license it from you, you give up or lose the copyright at some point?

You are thinking of Trademarks. In copyrights there is no such thing, and international treaties make it unlikely there will be.

In Trademarks you have to use and defend it or it is gone. Thus companies make efforts to be seen defending their trademark: if they can show the court that they have been careful about defending their trademarks they have a stronger case when someone is genuinely infringing.

The RIAA does not lose any rights by not protecting their copyright. However they also know sending a message to kids when they are only involved in small illegal act can prevent them from getting bigger, which is consideration they need to think about.

[mitchellshow]

Yeah, I think my friend was thinking of trademarks vs copyrights. I'm not arguing the lawsuits weren't a scare tactic... it was a spectacular failure of a plan. But I'm not sure what else they could have done at that point, as the sky started falling.