JetLib News

adeelarshad82 writes “The Recording Industry Association of America voiced its opposition to the recent decision in the YouTube-Viacom copyright infringement case, stating that ‘the district court’s dangerously expansive reading of the liability immunity provisions of the [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] upsets the careful balance struck within the law and is bad public policy.’ Cary Sherman, RIAA president, also wrote in a blog post, ‘It will actually discourage service providers from taking steps to minimize the illegal exchange of copyrighted works on their sites.’”

Source: RIAA Calls YouTube-Viacom Decision Bad Public Policy

This Wednesday, the United States District Court in Manhattan came down in favor of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in its case against the file-sharing service LimeWire, and founder Mark Gorton, over copyright infringement.

In a fairly unusual move, Judge Wood held Gorton personally liable. “The evidence establishes that Gorton directed and benefited from many of the activities that gave rise to LW’s liability,” she wrote [Wall Street Journal].

The decision was a long time in coming. Nine years have passed (seriously, nine years) since the federal ruling against Napster back in 2001. Most file-sharing services gave up after the 2005 decision against Grokster, the Journal says, but LimeWire held out. So the record companies sued in 2006, and finally won.

This looks like the end for LimeWire.

“It is obviously a fairly fatal decision for them,” said Michael Page, the San Francisco lawyer who represented file sharing service Grokster in the landmark case, MGM Studios vs. Grokster, and also represented LimeWire’s former CTO in the company’s most recent copyright case. “If they don’t shut down, the other side will likely make a request for an injunction and there’s nothing left but to go on to calculating damages” [CNET].

The hearing regarding compensation is scheduled for June 1. The RIAA is pretty clear about what it wants: money.

“We think a high-damage award would be appropriate,” said Steven Marks, the general counsel for the Recording Industry Association of America, a trade group that represents music companies. “I think it’s very clear from the decision that there’s a lot of evidence of willful behavior by LimeWire and its principals” [The New York Times].

But while LimeWire is doomed, that’s not reason to think that legislation will catch up to the Internet, at least according to Eric Garland of BigChampagne. While LimeWire kept operating its peer-to-peer system over the last decade, other systems, like BitTorrent, sprang up.

And if you like permissive Internet laws, just be glad you’re not in Germany. A court there this week found that people can bear some responsibility if they fail to secure their wireless connection and it winds up being used to distribute copyrighted content.

The owner had proof that the householder was on holiday at the time but the court ruled that the network should have been password-protected. The court’s verdict was that the owner could be fined up to 100 euros (about $127) [BBC News].

Image: LimeWire

Source: The End of the File-Sharing Services? Fed Court Slams Limewire Over Copyright

An anonymous reader writes “The joint comment filed by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) requests anti-infringement software on all home computers, pervasive copyright filtering, border searches, forced US intellectual property policies on foreign nations and a joint departmental agency to combat infringement during major releases.” The MPAA would also like to have its rent paid a bit by Congress, with a ban on what seems to me like a useful tool (for those in as well as outside the film industry), the recently-discussed futures market for box-office receipts.

Source: Media Industry Wants Mandated Spyware and More

Shakrai writes “Time Magazine has published an article about the impact of Cisco’s new CRS-3 router on the business practices of the MAFIAA. This new router was previously mentioned here on Slashdot and is expected to alleviate internet bottlenecks that currently impede steaming video-on-demand services. Some of the highlights from the article: ‘The ability to download albums and films in a matter of seconds is a harbinger of deep trouble for the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which would prefer to turn the clock back, way back. … The hard fact is that the latest developments at Cisco, Google and elsewhere may do more than kill the DVD and CD and further upset entertainment-business models that have changed little since the Mesozoic Era. With superfast streaming and downloading, indie filmmakers will soon be able to effectively distribute feature films online and promote them using social media such as Facebook and Twitter. … Meanwhile, both the MPAA and the RIAA continue to fight emerging technologies like peer-to-peer file sharing with costly court battles rather than figuring out how to appeal to the next generation of movie enthusiasts and still make a buck.”

Source: Cisco’s New Router — Trouble For Hollywood

A federal appeals court orders a college student to pay the Recording Industry Association of America $27,750 for file sharing 37 songs. A lower court previously ordered a $7,400 payment.

Source: Former Teen Cheerleader Dinged $27,750 for Infringing 37 Songs

The Recording Industry Association of America is demanding $25,000 from the nation’s first file sharer to take an RIAA lawsuit to trial. Jammie Thomas-Rasset is rejecting the offer to close the case, a move days after the trial judge reduced the verdict from $1.92 million to $54,000.

Source: Settlement Rejected in ‘Shocking’ RIAA File Sharing Verdict

The Obama administration is supporting $675,000 in damages a jury levied against a Boston student in a lawsuit brought by the Recording Industry Association of America. In July, a jury dinged Joel Tenenbaum for file sharing 30 songs, and he is now challenging that award as unlawfully excessive.

Source: Obama Supports $675K File Sharing Verdict

jvillain writes “The Canadian Recording Industry Association faces a lawsuit for 60 billion dollars over willful infringement. These numbers may sound outrageous, yet they are based on the same rules that led the recording industry to claim a single file sharer is liable for millions in damages. Since these exact same companies are currently in the middle of trying to force the Canadian government to bring in a DMCA for Canada, it will be interesting to see how they try to spin this.”

Source: CRIA Faces $60 Billion Lawsuit