Judge — "Making Available" Is Stealing Music

JonathanF writes "If you were hoping judges would see reason and realize that just using a program that could violate copyright law is about as illegal as leaving your back door unlocked, think again. An Arizona district judge has ruled that a couple who hosted files in KaZaA is liable for over $40K in damages just because they 'made available' songs that could have been pirated by someone, somewhere. There's legal precedent, but how long do we have before the BitTorrent crew is sued?" The New York case testing the same theory is still pending.

Comments

I see

[nomadic]

Their three-paragraph response was miniscule in comparison to those filed by file-sharing defendants with professional representation.

Ok, there's their mistake, they didn't hire a lawyer. Three paragraphs? That's just crazy.

Hopefully they'll hire one before the time to appeal expires.

One of my soulseek folders reads

[future assassin]

private_property_dont_download This is where I keep all my albums that I riped from my cd's. Since you already know that anything in that folder is my private propery, downloading from it make "you" the thief.

The folder that I download tracks to is named paying_canadian_recordable_media_levies_lets_me_do wnload_all_of_your_music

Let them Fry!

[GISGEOLOGYGEEK]

They didn't 'leave their back door open' to a thief ... they effectively put a table on the front lawn piled high with music with a big sign saying 'come on in, copy all you want!'. ... and they shall get what they deserve.

Are they just idiots? There is no excuse here. They knew what their software was doing and if they didn't know they should not have been using it.

Don't like copyrights? ... then don't buy the material, don't use it in any form - legitimate or pirated, don't consume the content in any way at all. If you actually have some talent, make your own!

Only by completely ignoring the industry will they get desparate and be forced to relax the licenses they have legally chosen to apply to their property.

Is your life really so empty that you can't get by without your stolen music?