Slashdotted (Tech entry)

Judge Rejects RIAA 'Making Available' Theory

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday February 25, @05:26PM
from the need-a-new-revenue-strategy dept.

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "A federal judge in Connecticut has rejected the RIAA's 'making available' theory, which is the basis of all of the RIAA's peer to peer file sharing cases. In Atlantic v. Brennan, in a 9-page opinion [PDF], Judge Janet Bond Arterton held that the RIAA needs to prove 'actual distribution of copies', and cannot rely — as it was permitted to do in Capitol v. Thomas — upon the mere fact that there are song files on the defendant's computer and that they were 'available'. This is the same issue that has been the subject of extensive briefing in two contested cases in New York, Elektra v. Barker and Warner v. Cassin. Judge Arterton also held that the defendant had other possible defenses, such as the unconstitutionality of the RIAA's damages theory and possible copyright misuse flowing from the record companies' anticompetitive behavior."

What does music "piracy" mean, anyway? I am not sure. I like music, personally, and I don't mind buying music. However (and there is always a however here), I don't want to buy music music that I have already bought. I don't want to pay import prices for an album that downloads for 79p per song, if I happened to live in the UK. Here, the CD with that song sells for $26-- about double what I am willing to spend on a CD. I am not sure that in the situations I am describing that file sharing is a bad thing. I am just not sure. I think that to the point that I am taking revenue out of the hands of artists (and production staff), that sharing to avoid payment is bad, evil, despicable, etc. How much money do these people see per sale, anyway though? And how much money goes to the supply chain? And why if a single cost me a $1 when I physically bought a vinyl single, that had shelf space in WalMart, that was transported, do I still have to pay $1 for a lesser quality electronic download, that has no transport costs, no floor/shelf space, no nothing, except production costs. How much did the artist get paid then and how much does the artist get paid now?

The RIAA makes it hard for amateurs to use music. More barriers.