NetCoalition, a Washington, D.C.-based policy group that represents companies ranging from small Internet service providers to Yahoo and DoubleClick, on Monday said it is worried that ISPs are getting drawn too deeply into the RIAA's online enforcement efforts--an issue that has kept relations between copyright holders and Net service providers tense for years.

"There are understandable fears among many in the Internet community that the real purpose of this legal campaign is to achieve in court what the association has not yet been able to accomplish in Congress--to make Internet companies legally responsible for the conduct of individuals who use their systems," the group wrote in its letter. "Obviously, such a result would be an anathema to Internet companies and the millions of Americans who use this medium on a daily basis to engage in countless legitimate activities impossible in the offline world."

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