Following the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in 1998 and particularly since 2004, violators of copyright law have been taken to court by the recording industry for infringement of the Act—a form of leaching. Many of those targeted by the recording industry included U.S. students who downloaded music from Napster and shared files with their friends for free, depriving the recording artists of their royalties and failing to give back to the entertainment community. The courts generally made each of the student violators pay thousands of dollars in damages.

See Also: Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA); Napster; Warez Software.