The Recording Industry Association of America said it sent out subpoenas to Internet service providers as it prepares to go after people who illegally distribute music over the Internet.

“This should not come as a surprise to anyone,” said Amy Weiss, the RIAA’s senior vice president of communications. “Filing information subpoenas is part of the evidence-gathering process that we announced a few weeks ago, in anticipation of the lawsuits that we will be filing against people who illegally make copyrighted music available on peer-to-peer networks. We’re doing exactly what we said we’d do.”

The subpoenas enable the RIAA to force ISPs to release the names of subscribers suspected of illegally swapping copyrighted songs on the Web. The music industry intends to file civil lawsuits against the music pirates in effort to curb the practice.

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“We think that it’s gotten crazy enough now and it’s time to say stop,’ said Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based Internet rights organization. “That this ever-increasing demonization of file-sharing and file-sharers is counterproductive. It doesn’t get artists paid. And it doesn’t respond to what consumers want.’

The Mercury News reported that, “the recording industry has maintained that it has little choice other than to pursue individuals who use file-swapping services to steal music.”

“We all would much rather spend our time making music than dealing with legal issues in courtrooms,’ said RIAA President Cary Sherman last month, in defending the new, unpopular legal initiative. “But we can no longer accept the work of our artists, songwriters, and entire music industry being stolen. So we’re going to start doing something more about it.’.

(via Mercury News)