RIAA forced to drop download case

Written by Ryan Garside

August 1, 2006 | 12:22

Tags: #case #copyright #court #download #infringement #ip #lawsuit #mpaa #p2p #peer #peer-to-peer #virgin

Companies: #riaa

Despite the success in the Kazzaa case earlier this week for the RIAA it seems they have actually suffered a massive set back in their quest to stifle the internet’s illegal download community.

In the recent case in California of Virgin vs. Marson, where Mrs. Marson had a claim being made against her on the basis that she owned the computer and paid for the internet through which the illegal file sharing was taking place, the RIAA has decided to discontinue the case. The assumption being made is that the use of an IP address as evidence against file sharers is not enough to prove that the person being charged committed copyright infringement.

Others, as in this report, are now suggesting that the best way to defend yourself against the RIAA is to open up your WiFi network to your neighbours. Essentially, the more people who are using the internet through a shared IP address the weaker the evidence the RIAA can summon against you.

For the RIAA this situation couldn’t really get much worse.

The RIAA and MPAA now appear desperate in their quest to prevent illegal downloading. The inquirer is even reporting that they are starting to slip subliminal messages about the ‘badness’ of internet piracy into modern films – Charlie Demerjian described the effort in the Hollywood blockbuster as thus:

“Now, they are slipping the message in through 'blowoff' lines, trying to infect modern culture. There was a scene in Miami Vice where they were discussing the big bad drug dealers, and how international they were. The good guys listed all the thing the bad guys were capable of bringing into the US, Cocaine, Heroin, etc, etc. They listed it as coke from Colombia, heroin from Afganistan, X from Y and A from B. Pretty normal stuff. At the end, they added 'pirated software from China'. Blink.”

So what next for the RIAA? Is the case as monumental as it is being made out to be, or will the RIAA lawyers find some way round it? Let us know your views in the forum.
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