This is bad for the RIAA, but good for file sharers. Yet another judge today disagreed with the RIAA’s assertion that making copyrighted works available — say, on a P2P network like BitTorrent — is not copyright infringement.
This marks the second time the law has sided against the RIAA on this exact same issue. The judgment basically says, “leaving something out for someone to steal does not make them an accessory to theft,” and we agree.
Will this stop the RIAA from continuing with its ridiculous lawsuits? No way. Other than counting all of its money that never goes to artists, it has nothing better to do.
Hmm. Very interesting: y’know, if you take this court’s ruling to its logical extension, ANY use of copyrighted material on the web would be A-OK, since all you’re doing when you “publish” a webpage is “making available” (on your web hosting server) text, photos, videos, etc. that other people may or may not choose to access/download to their own local browser.
The RIAA is just pissed because it can’t use all it’s data it has on P2P filesharing to prosecute.