James Delahunty
11 Dec 2006 9:00
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed thousands of lawsuits against file sharers in the United States claiming that the individuals infringed copyright by sharing music on P2P networks. The trade group has long stated that uploaders on P2P networks are acting as "distributors" but it wasn't until October that this claim was confirmed by a federal judge.
Judge Ann Aiken found that users of P2P software who make illegal files available for download (add to shared folders) are doing the equivalent of distributing the files which justifies a basis for a copyright infringement claim. This revelation came in the case, Elektra v. Perez. This case started like most others with information from MediaSentry resulting in a lawsuit against Dave Perez for illegally sharing music.
Perez denied the accusation of sharing files illegally and said even if he was responsible for the "perez@kazaa" account, simply having the files in a shared directory does not justify a claim of infringement. In this case, and some others, the defendant claimed that distribution does not occur until somebody actually downloads a shared file and that the RIAA should have to prove that distribution ever took place.
Judge Aiken ruled that the plaintiff needs to both demonstrate ownership of of the material and show that the defendant "violated at least one exclusive right granted to copyright holders under 17 U.S.C. ยง 106", continuing to say that making songs available for download fulfills the second requirement.
Source:
Ars technica