This is the sort of common sense Justice we have all been waiting for, a judge who wants to see proof of a recording industry claim.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061222-8488.htmlIn a closely followed case, UMG v. Lindor, a federal judge has ruled that the RIAA will have to show that Lindor actually shared music, a higher burden than demonstrating that she made the files available for download.
Judge David G. Trager ruled that when the case goes to trial, "plaintiffs will have the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that defendant did indeed infringe plaintiff's copyrights by convincing the fact-finder, based on the evidence plaintiffs have gathered, that defendant actually shared sound files belonging to plaintiffs."
This is something that will hopefully put a stop to the "extortion racket" currently being operated by the Recording Industry against consumers and artists.
When suing (or in 90% of cases threatening to sue and harassing folks with tough sounding lawyers) the RIAA memeber companies are always quick to claim that copyright infringement has taken place and this is often let by unchallenged, until now.
I think this is more helpful to people facing the extortion machine who have commited no infringing activity and also in the end will maybe return some respect for the legal process, its common sense to all that you should have to prove what your claiming has taken place before wasting the courts time and the finances of innocent victims of the "copyright infringement scam"' that is currently allowed to take place.
