Debbie Foster was sued by RIAA member company Capitol Records for allegedly sharing copyrighted material on a P2P file sharing network. However, the alleged infringement was apparently committed by someone else with access to her ISP account. Foster had the case dismissed last summer, and as reported by Listening Post earlier this month, was awarded attorney’s fees in excess of $50,000.
For the RIAA, which functions as the legal and lobbying arm of the labels it represents, this was very bad news indeed. If the ruling stands, the RIAA will have to be much more careful about who it sues going forward, adjusting its scatter-shot approach to filing such lawsuits in order to avoid suing the wrong people. But if the RIAA’s appeal is granted, open Wi-Fi hotspots could become standing invitations for the organization to sue.
Predictably, the RIAA has filed a "motion for reconsideration" of Judge West’s decision to force the RIAA to pay for Foster’s legal fees. In the motion, the plaintiffs emphasize a key point: They want the judge to rule that the owner of an ISP account is responsible for all activity on that account, which could have a chilling effect on public wireless access and open hotspots. (The appeal also made the point that Foster should be held liable if she was aware of the infringement occuring via her account; in the case of someone with an open Wi-Fi network, that could constitute something as simple as experiencing traffic slowdowns.)
If the judge rules that we’re each legally responsible for all of the traffic that comes through our ISP account, open, unprotected Wi-Fi hotspots would become a serious legal liability, the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people who depend on their neighbors for Wi-Fi will be out of luck, while altruistic (or ignorant) folks who leave their wireless networks open could find themselves embroiled in an RIAA lawsuits even if they’ve never shared a single song in their lives.
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- The RIAA vs. John Doe, a layperson’s guide to filesharing lawsuits
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All it takes is the stupidy of One to screw it up for the rest of us. Let’s hope that whichever judge rules on the appeal is not stupid(and since judges are nothing more than chumped up lawyers that’s hoping for a miracle).
It really depends on how much the bribe the riaa pays him.
The RIAA can spend it entire resources trying to stop file sharing but it will about as usefull or effective(as a whole) as trying to stop the sun coming up or they could join the “Flat Earth Society” and campaign for them (probaly more useful to society) . Instead they should improve their product delivery and customer service if they want to in buisness in 20 years. There buisness models (ideas) belong to the 20th century
. Society (1st world) has moved on to a multimedia fully interfaced(eventually)(net etc) way of doing things. Change is inevitable as it is Life Death is the other alternative (of everything) … my 2 cent worth for the day Warren G