RIAA Setback Making Music Available May Not Be Copyright Infringement: related news

RIAA Setback: Making Music Available May Not Be Copyright Infringement

A district judge may order a new trial in a music file-sharing suit that won record companies $222,000 for copyright infringement.

RIAA Wins First Federal Music Copyright Trial - Jail time, fines and restitution are expected

A young man has just been convicted of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement for his role in administering a music filesharing server. The man was a member of Apocalypse Production Crew (APC), a "release group" for pirated music. Others in the group have paid fines related to these charges but nobody else had taken the case to trial. RIAA says that this is a landmark case because it is the first federal trial for online copyright infringement in which a majority of the filesharing charges were for sharing music. And of course RIAA is pleased with the verdict which will require the man to make full restitution to the record labels from which he stole music. The man also faces up to five years in prison and a quarter million dollar fine.

RIAA Drops Case That Hinges On 'Making Available' Issue - Is RIAA giving up on these cases or just trying to avoid precedent-setting loss?

In the lawsuits that RIAA has filed against P2P users in the past, one of the major questions that has come up has been whether or not it’s illegal to simply make copyrighted files available for others to download. The argument of users is that there has to actually be something stolen, some proof that the file was downloaded, or there was no violation but RIAA has said that the violation takes place when the file is made available online. A New York court recently agreed with users on this issue which has caused other cases to go back to the courts for further review. Perhaps RIAA plans to stop fighting this particularly battle considering that they just voluntarily dismissed a case that had been pending for nearly a year in which the major issue was the “making available” point.

Law Professors Want New Trial for First RIAA Trial Win - Making available issue could lead to new trial but not necessarily new outcome

Last fall RIAA got a big win in the courts when Jammie Thomas was ordered to pay over $200,000 in fines just for “making available” music downloads for sharing. Recently, the judge in that case said that he was considering giving that trial a second chance because nationwide cases indicate that solely making the files available for distribution (with no proof that they were actually distributed) isn’t actually a crime. A group of lawyers has submitted a brief for the judge’s review which does indeed suggest that a new trial should be granted because of this issue. This doesn’t mean that Thomas would be in the clear; she could still be found in violation of copyright infringement even if a new trial is granted but she would get a second chance to prove her side of the case.

Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Music Announces Online Music Education 2008 Commencement Ceremony

(Boston) – For the first time since the program’s inception, the Boston University College of Fine Arts will hold a separate Convocation for the School of Music’s Online Music Education Program on Saturday, May 17 at 4:00pm at the Tsai Performance Center. In just two years, Boston University School of Music’s two distance learning graduate music education programs have experienced tremendous growth. The two programs – the Doctorate of Musical Arts in Music Education and the Master of Music in Music Education – began online classes in the fall of 2005 with a total of 67 students and have experienced exponential growth with the help of Compass Knowledge Group. This semester 117 students will graduate from the Master of Music in Music Education program with about 30 attending the actual ceremony.

$4 Million In Fines For Linking To Infringing Files

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "The MPAA won judgments totaling $4M against two sites which merely link to infringing content. They're not arguing that it's an infringement of their distribution right, like the RIAA has with their 'making available' argument. Instead, they got the sites for 'contributory copyright infringement', just like RIAA v. LimeWire. To translate all that legalese into English, search engines which primarily index copyright-infringing material and the people who run them may not be safe in the US. That applies even if the sites in question do not host any infringing materials, participate in, or encourage the infringement done by their users. And, even honoring DMCA notices in order to take advantage of the DMCA Safe Harbor provisions hasn't prevented the **AA from suing.

Is Watching An Infringing YouTube Video Copyright Infringement?

Last year we pointed to a report where a law professor tallied up how much he "infringed" on copyright in a regular day, coming out with a multi-million dollar total. Now Tom writes in to alert us to an article by Chris Soghoian questioning whether or not watching an infringing video on YouTube counts as infringement as well. The summary is that it's hardly a clearcut issue -- which should be seen as a problem. A copyright holder could conceivably make an argument that it's infringement, though it's not clear that it would hold up in court (and the backlash against anyone stupid enough to make such an argument would be overwhelming). What this really highlights, though, is how poorly our copyright laws are structured for the internet age, where anyone can create, distribute and consume tons and tons of content (all covered by copyright, t

RIAA Throws In Towel On "Making Available" Case

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA has thrown in the towel on one of the leading cases challenging its 'making available' theory, Warner v. Cassin, in which the defendant had moved to dismiss the RIAA's complaint. We have just learned that the RIAA submitted a voluntary notice of dismissal before the judge got to decide the defendant's motion to dismiss the complaint. It will be of interest to see if Ms. Cassin pursues a claim for attorneys' fees in view of recent court rulings that successful copyright defendants are presumptively entitled to an attorneys fee award, even if the dismissal came about from the plaintiffs' having 'thrown in the towel.'"

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Will The RIAA Sue Judge Kozinski For Sharing MP3s?

While judge Alex Kozinski is getting a ton of press for accidentally sharing pornographic images from his webserver, Justin Levine notes that the report concerning what was on the server also found music MP3s from musicians like Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Weird Al Yankovic. Levine wonders if the RIAA will now sue this federal judge as well. In fact, things could get tricky in that some research suggests not only was Kozinski storing MP3s, he may have actively been sharing some of those MP3s as well. That same link mentions that in one of many copyright infringement lawsuits concerning the company Perfect 10, Kozinski wrote a dissenting opinion suggesting that facilitating copyright infringement should be seen as infringement as well:

Karaoke System Suppliers, SHINE Multimedia Co. Ltd and Thunderstone Technology Ltd, Investigated for Providing Pirated Songs

BEIJING, June 25 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- The Karaoke Copyright Operation Center of China Audio-Video Copyright Association (CAVCA) revealed that the two companies, SHINE Multimedia Co. Ltd and Thunderstone Technology Ltd, were investigated by copyright authorities on June 20th because they were suspected of illegally copying and supplying pirated songs to Karaoke operators. In May of this year, the Yunnan Copyright Administration received complaints against the Kunming offices of these two companies from China Audio -Video Copyright Association, Music Copyright Society of China (MCSC) and some other rights owners, who claim that the two companies produced and sold VOD systems to Karaoke operators, copied and sold large numbers of music works, including Love Me or Not.

RIAA's Throwing In the Towel Covered a Sucker Punch

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA threw in the towel, all right, but was only doing it in preparation for throwing a sucker punch. After dropping its 'making available' case, Warner v. Cassin, before Judge Robinson could decide whether to dismiss or not, it was only trying to do an 'end run' (if I may mix my sports metaphors) around the judge's deciding the motion and freezing discovery. The RIAA immediately, and secretly, filed a new case against the family, calling this one 'Warner v. Does 1-4.' In their papers the lawyers 'forgot' to mention that the new case was related. As a result, Does 1-4 was assigned to another judge, who knew nothing about the old case. The RIAA lawyers also may have forgotten that they couldn't bring any more cases over this same claim, since they'd already dismissed it twice before.

EU finally cuts through licensing red tape for digital music

The European Commission wants online music stores across Europe to be fully stocked, and is eliminating certain restrictive policies imposed by royalty groups. EU regulators ordered 24 music societies across Europe to modify or ditch their agreements that bar music services from selling or broadcasting music across borders, forcing those services to set up individual storefronts for each of the EU's member states that may or may not carry all the same content. The groups have 120 days to make the changes, although the EU does not currently plan to impose fines for noncompliance.

Google Continues to Dominate US, UK Searches in May 2008

Google continued its dominance over the U.S. search market in May, grabbing 68.29% of all searches in May 2008, seeing increases both month-over-month and year-over-year, according to Hitwise. Both Yahoo and MSN saw decreases from April 2008 and May 2007. Yahoo! saw 19.95% in May 2008, down from 20.28% in April and 20.89% last May. MSN was at 5.89% this may, down from 6.26% last month and 7.62% in May 2007. Ask.com, on the other hand, saw increases. They were at 4.23% last month, up from 4.17% in April and 3.92% in May 2007.

Online music pioneer Napster launches restriction-free music store

San Francisco - Napster, the online music site that first popularized free music over the net, launched on Tuesday what it called the world's largest online music store without digital rights management. But fans of original Napster may be disappointed. Though the music available will play on any MP-compatible device, it also costs 99 cents a track.

EMI Music Enters Into New Agreement With Qtrax for Ad-Supported Digital Music Service

NEW YORK, June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- EMI Music, one of the world's leading music companies, has entered into an agreement with ad-supported digital music service Qtrax to make EMI's catalog of digital music available to music fans in the US and Canada.

First Music Download Case Gets Second Chance - Court may have been wrong about specifics of file sharing law

Last fall a Minnesota woman was ordered by the courts to pay over $200,000 in fines in the first case of music download filesharing that went to trial. The court is now about to hear new arguments which could change the ruling in that case. The issue of contention was that the judge previously advised the jury that the woman was guilty of a crime simply for making the music available online; it didn’t matter whether or not anyone had actually downloaded the music.

How To Frame a Printer For Copyright Infringement

An anonymous reader writes "Have you ever wondered what it takes to get 'caught' for copyright infringement on the Internet? Surprisingly, actual infringement is not required. The New York Times reports that researchers from the computer science department at the University of Washington have just released a study that examines how enforcement agencies monitor P2P networks and what it takes to receive a complaint today. Without downloading or sharing a single file, their study attracted more than 400 copyright infringement complaints. Even more disturbing is their discovery that illegal P2P participation can be easily spoofed; the researchers managed to frame innocent desktop machines and even several university printers, all of which received bogus complaints.

Music Copyright signs music publishing administration deal with Edition Roland

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Music Copyright Solutions Plc. said it signed an exclusive music publishing administration deal to collect the royalties for Munich-based music publisher, Edition Roland in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan among other Southeast Asian territories.

Specialty Retail Chain Hot Topic to Launch MP3 Store

New York - Pop culture-inspired fashion retail store chain Hot Topic plans next month to launch its own digital music store, ShockHound, which will sell music from at least three of the four major labels in MP3 format, The New York Times reported on Monday. "For us, music merchandise is where the profit is," Hot Topic president Jerry Cook told The Times. "The reason we carry CDs in the stores is that to be in a music-centered business and not have music would be a contradiction. And you can't be an online music store and not have MP3s." In addition to MP3s from a wide range of artists, the ShockHound store also expects to sell t-shirts from more than 1,000 bands, as well as music on vinyl.

EU music composer urge EU not to make sales of online music rights EU-wide

European music composers, led by Bee Gee Robin Gibb, claimed Thursday that selling online music rights EU-wide would harm authors and music making.

EU music composer urge EU not to make sales of online music rights EU-wide

European music composers, led by Bee Gee Robin Gibb, claimed Thursday that selling online music rights EU-wide would harm authors and music making.

NBC, CBS, Fox Say Redlasso Violating Copyright Laws By Streaming Video Clips

May 21, 2008 (FinancialWire) General Electric Co. s (NYSE: GE) NBC Universal, CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS), and News Corp. s (NYSE: NWS-A) Fox charged that Redlasso, a closely-held website operator, has violated copyright laws by streaming video clips of their news, sports and television shows without permission. Previously, Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA-B) filed a $1 billion copyright infringement against Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and its video-share site YouTube. NBC, CBS and Fox have demanded that Redlasso stop reproducing, distributing or displaying the broadcasts. As interest in online video has boomed, broadcasters are attempting to avoid the music industry's troubles by closely protecting their content on the Web. Broadcasters are making more of their content available through their own advertising-supported sites.

EU music composer urge EU not to make sales of online music rights EU-wide

BRUSSELS, Belgium: European music composers, led by Bee Gee Robin Gibb, claimed Thursday that selling online music rights EU-wide would harm authors and music making.

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