Download rave planned for Halloween
London, October 7 2003, (netimperative)

by Chris Lake

An underground association of ravers is urging music fans to boycott the Record Industry Association of America on Halloween night, in protest at its policy of suing file swappers.

The campaign, called 'NATIONWIDE HALLOWEEN RAVE AGAINST THE BULLIES (In the Record Industry)', will see music fans congregating for offline raves on 31 October that will have one thing in common - the only music that will be played will have been downloaded from the internet.

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Although initially aimed at the US, where the RIAA is based, the raves appear to be spreading to other countries and will "serve as the kickoff for many other anti-RIAA events throughout the coming months".

It is not yet known whether the secretive organisers of the anti-RIAA campaign are in fact the RIAA themselves, on a mission to discover the names and addresses of the file swappers. One in three Americans are thought to have engaged in file swapping via the web.