Andre Yoskowitz
30 Apr 2008 18:49
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has suffered another legal setback after a judge denied a ruling in a music piracy case this week. The judge ruled that "the sole act of making a music file available in a "shared folder" does not violate copyright laws."
In the case Atlantic v. Howell, the RIAA asserted that a "sound recording" that is legally ripped to a PC and then stored in any type of shared folder is unauthorized and illegal. The assertion was not really clear however, as a shared folder is a very broad category.
The RIAA saw some backlash for its assertion when the rumor was spread around the Internet that the RIAA believed that ripping CD music was illegal. The group cleared up the situation by saying that it doesn't consider ripping illegal but that adding music recordings to a shared folder that can be accessed by others in a P2P file sharing program is illegal and should be stopped.
The ruling this week has shut those theories down however. U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake tossed out all the RIAA's motions including the "making available" and "offer to distribute" theories that pertained to "shared folders."
The judgment could have long lasting effects in all of the RIAA's music piracy cases as it is now harder for the group to prove that "a copyrighted file actually changed hands given the anonymous nature of file-sharing programs and the lack of cooperation from Internet service providers with these lawsuits."