A victory for common sense
http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9908353-38.htmlA federal judge in New York has dealt the Recording Industry Association of America a setback in its thousands of lawsuits over piracy on peer-to-peer networks.
In a widely anticipated decision, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas ruled Monday to reject the RIAA's claim that a Kazaa user who merely "made available" copyrighted music necessarily violated the law. Rather, he said, the RIAA would have to demonstrate that unlawful copying actually took place.
A few characteristics make this case unusual. First, New York federal judges are viewed as well-versed in copyright law, so Karas' decision is likely to be influential. Second, an unusually large number of outside groups filed briefs, including the U.S. Internet Industry Association, the Motion Picture Association of America, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Computer and Communications Industry Association, meaning the court benefited from a range of views and increasing the importance of this week's decision
Lets hope this decision is able to filter through in other cases where the jury where mislead on this exact point of the law, I can see 2 cases alreadyunder appeal , lets hope the Jammie Thomas case benifits from this clarification of the fact you must have actually shared copyrighted material with another person to be infringing the right of copy, to say otherwise brings the law into dispute with common sense.