Hilary Rosen claimed that the MP3 player violated the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA), and in doing so "encourages consumers to infringe the rights of artists by trafficking in unlicensed music recordings on the Internet." However US District Judge Audrey Collins denied the injunction that would have halted Diamond Multimedia Systems, from distributing the player.
If that wasn't annoying enough for the RIAA, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling, and also found the Rio was not covered by the anti-piracy law invoked by the association. Being passed around from corporation to corporation didn't help the brand and the increasing growing competition including Creative Technology’s Zen players and of course Apple's iPod proved fatal for Rio. However, there still could be hope for the Rio brand as D&M said it was retaining the Rio name, and has a licence to use the MP3 technology now sold to SigmaTel.
Source:
The Register