Peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing users facing the legal wrath of the major record labels just got an ally. And it's a record label, of all things.

Nettwerk Music Group, Canada's largest privately owned record label and artist management company, said today that it is taking a stand against the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) policy of suing consumers who illegally download music.

"Suing music fans is not the solution; it's the problem," Nettwerk CEO Terry McBride said in a statement.

"Litigation is not 'artist development,'" he continued. "Litigation is a deterrent to creativity and passion and it is hurting the business I love. The current actions of the RIAA are not in my artists' best interests."

The group filed 751 lawsuits against P2P service users in December.

Nettwerk, whose artists include Avril Lavigne, Barenaked Ladies, Dido, Sum 41, and Sarah McLachlan, was drawn into the fray when another of its artists, MC Lars, was contacted by a 15-year-old girl whose family was being sued by the RIAA for downloading 600 songs on to their computer.

MC Lars has a track called "Download This Song," and Elisa Greubel wrote the rapper to tell him how she identified with it.

"My family is one of many seemingly randomly chosen families to be sued by the RIAA," she wrote. "No fun. You can't fight them, trying could possibly cost us millions. The line 'they sue little kids downloading hit songs' basically sums a lot of the whole thing up. I'm not saying it is right to download but the whole lawsuit business is a tad bit outrageous.”

The RIAA has targeted Greubel's father David for downloading nine specific songs, including "Sk8er Boi" by Avril Lavigne--another Nettwerk management client. The organization is demanding that Greubel pay a $9,000 penalty, though it will accept $4,500 if he pays within a specific period of time.

Nettwerk said it will pay all of the family's legal fees as well as any fines should it lose its battle with the RIAA.

The family has enlisted Chicago-based Mudd Law Offices to defend it in the case. The firm has defended other people facing the RIAA's legal wrath before.

"Since 2003, the RIAA has continually misused the court and legal system, engaging in misguided litigation tactics for the purpose of extorting settlement amounts from everyday people--parents, students, doctors and general consumers of music," attorney Charles Lee Mudd Jr. said in a statement. "In doing so, the RIAA has misapplied existing copyright law and improperly employed its protections not as a shield, but as a sword."

RIAA officials could not be reached for comment.