Fans of media file sharing have likely been partying in the streets this week after learning of an influential court decision that puts a sizeable dent into legal proceedings designed to gut-punch the contentious practice of peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing.
Judge\'s ruling throws spanner in the works of RIAA\'s file-sharing legal row. Image: Kazaa.
The weighty decision has come about in the ongoing case of Atlantic vs. Pamela and Jeffrey Howell, after the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) failed in its efforts to acquire a fast-track summary judgement in its favour, reports Wired News.
Through its legal action, the RIAA is looking to crack down on file sharing by claiming that those making files available for the consumption of others -- namely through P2P services such as Kazaa -- are infringing upon media distribution rights held by the content owner.
The positional wrangling comes about when trying to ascertain whether the rights holder has been infringed upon if a P2P user places content into a shared-files folder but there is absolutely no proof to support the notion that someone else has dipped into that file and downloaded its material.
While prior decisions have sided with the RIAA, Judge Neil V. Wake, who is presiding over the Atlantic/Howell case, has said that just because the Howells had placed music in their Kazaa file it did not necessarily mean that other people were actively downloading it.
The case against the Howells came about when the RIAA’s investigating partner, MediaSentry, uncovered the stored music files on the couple’s computer and was able to download them on January 30 of 2006. To that end, the judge further noted that there was no proof of the copyrighted music being distributed to any other parties beyond that of MediaSentry.
“The statute does not define the term ‘distribute,’ so courts have interpreted the term in light of the statute’s plain meaning and legislative history,” wrote the judge in his ruling. “The general rule, supported by the great weight of authority, is that ‘infringement of [the distribution right] requires an actual dissemination of either copies or phonorecords.’”
By way of response the RIAA offered that it was considering all options going forward in the case, and thought the court’s decision to be “outside of the mainstream and inconsistent with countless court rulings” on the issues of file sharing.
In related news, RIAA member labels launched a lawsuit against online music search service Project Playlist on April 28 of 2008, claiming that the site’s index of links infringe upon copyright. In its defence, Project Playlist maintains that copyright has not been violated as none of its search-indexed music is hosted on its own servers.
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