James Delahunty
5 Apr 2005 8:41
The Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) has won a major P2P case. For the first time anywhere in the world, a P2P service has been found liable for copyright infringement that has taken place on the network and damages have been awarded to the RIAJ. The decision cames after a Tokyo court rejected MMO's appeal and awarded damages of Yen36.89mn (£183,000) to plaintiff’s comprising 19 labels. MMO was also found to have infringed the plaintiffs' right to make their recordings available on the Internet.
The RIAJ was delighted with the ruling of course, saying it will keep up its fight against file sharing. The RIAJ says file sharing is corrupting the cycle of music creation and is leading to decline of music culture. Allen Dixon, general counsel for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) stressed the significance of the ruling. "This case is important in that it is the first decision world-wide that has found that providing an unauthorised file-sharing service itself constitutes an infringement of record companies' rights to make available their recordings on the Internet," he said.
The significance of this decision on a worldwide scale is quite big as right now, MGM vs. Grokster is active inside the U.S. Supreme Court, and MGM want Grokster to be found liable for copyright infringement that allegedly takes place on the P2P network. Punishing legitimate technology for the illegitimate uses of some of its users is wrong and in 1984 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favour of Sony after the company was sued over its VCRs. That decision proved excellent for both sides as the movie industry turned VHS tapes into a multi-billion dollar market. Also somebody needs to remind the RIAJ that P2P doesn't corrupt the cycle of music, there is a lot more music in the world not being offered by their or any other major record label.
Source:
PC Pro