RIAA and others in general sued a lot of people including bar owners for playing their songs etc , there were also some enforcement via private companies with t

RIAA and others in general sued a lot of people including bar owners for playing their songs etc , there were also some enforcement via private companies with three strike policies and so on especially in Europe . They went after ISPs and torrent sites which only hosted magnet links and many others who shouldn’t have been really sued The goal was to create a very hostile environment for downloading songs to protect their interests - “you wouldn’t download a car!” It was never the goal nor ever realistic to actually pursue enforcement action against every offender , the idea was to change behavior with all the related actions . They did end up changing behavior, people just didn’t want the hassle, or be in fear so paying for streaming for access had a stronger value proposition, it was not what the RIAA planned , but benefits enormously today.