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EFF Takes On RIAA "Making Available" Theory
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In Atlantic v. Howell, the Phoenix, Arizona, case in which a defendant who has no legal representation has been battling the RIAA over its theory that merely 'making files available for distribution' is in and of itself a copyright infringement, Mr. Howell has received some help from an outside source. On the last day allowed for the filing of supplemental briefs, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed an amicus curiae brief agreeing with Mr. Howell, and refuting the RIAA's motion for summary judgment. The brief (PDF), which is recommended reading for anyone who wants to know what US copyright law really says, points out that 'contrary to Plaintiffs' arguments, an infringement of the distribution right requires the unauthorized, actual dissemination of copies of a copyrighted work.' This is the same case in which the RIAA claimed that Mr. Howell's MP3s, copied from his CDs, were themselves unlawful."
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
While I greatly appreciate your work in helping reign in yet another greedy monopoly abusing their powers, I have to post a correction to the original post. They did NOT argue that someone ripping a copy of the CD to the computer was unauthorized - it was the placement of a copy in the share folder for Kazaa. There have been numerous follow ups to the original assertion, including Techdirt, Gizmodo and Slashdot (noting the Gizmodo retraction) The RIAA has even clarified their position in a somewhat weasel worded quote. In essence, if you don't share, we (probably) don't care.
It is a good thing in that it is showing the true colors of the RIAA. Even though he might lose the case, its a battle lost but we could win the war. The more people realize that the RIAA is trying to attack us doing the simple act of ripping CDs to MP3s, Joe Sixpack might actually give a second thought if he really wants/needs to spend the $15 to get a new CD. It also could help when a senator/representative finds out that this is what the RIAA has been doing all along and those who actually knew about technology were right, they could take down the DMCA and other atrocious laws. This also might make bands less likely to join a record company that's part of the RIAA (because they are music listeners too) and also start labels breaking away from the RIAA because people won't buy DRMed songs and they don't believe that "piracy" is the same as ripping MP3s. If anything, this should give more evidence into persuading people that the RIAA truly is opposing our freedoms.
There is no "disagree" moderation, and troll, flamebait and overrated are not valid substitutes
Planning on breaking the law is not a crime. Actually breaking the law is what defines a crime. Granted, if you've planned on breaking some law and your planning constitutes conspiracy to commit a crime by definition of a law against conspiracy to commit a crime, then you've broken the law in so far as conspiracy is concerned, not as far as the actual crime you conspired to commit(unless you actually committed it).
Patriot - A fan of expanding government power and spending while not wanting to pay higher taxes.
Had to look it up myself...
amicus curiae - A friend of the court; a nonparty who interposes, with the permission of the court, and volunteers information upon some matter before the court.
But is anyone else worried about this guy going to bat without representation and possibly allowing precedent to be set by his actions? Is this considered by those who would consider later cases based upon the decisions that will be made in this one?
I'll believe in corporations having personhood when Texas executes one... - advocate_one
I can't say I'm 100% up to date on the current batch of p2p clients but with many of the earlier generation there were common issues of false advertising:
1. Mis-labeled song. Say it's something it's not.
2. Clients set to not allow downloads. A lot of the older clients would let you set the maximum number of downloads to 0. Your stuff would still end up indexed, but no one could download.
3. Host that were fire-walled off from letting people download. The communication for a lot of these networks isn't on one port from one host. So you can have clients advertising content that you can't actually get because of firewalls.
I'm not actually pro-copyright infringement, but a demonstration of advertised content being un-downloadable really swaying a jury. Or better yet I would love the RIAA to sue someone who wasn't sharing because of firewalls and who had meticulous firewall logs, so that they could get roasted.
Oh, I think NewYorkCountryLawyer knows what he's talking about. You know how people say IANAL? Well, he doesn't say that because he is a lawyer. And one that has particularly been defending copyright infringement cases lately. This is a reading of existing law, not necessarily trying to establish a 'new law' via legal precedent (which, BTW, isn't all it's cracked up to be.)
My blog
Subject to sections 107 through 122, the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following: (1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords; (2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work; (3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending; (4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly; (5) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly; and (6) in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.
Furthermore, the legislative history supports this construction of the statute in which Congress stated: "Use of the phrase 'to authorize' is intended to avoid any questions as to the liability of contributory infringers."
In contrast, however, there is nothing in the statute or the legislative history that suggests that the making available should be infringement. It is one reading of the statute from a case in the 4th Circuit and the opinion itself was meant to be limited to libraries. (at least how I read it)
Yes, you are correct, that's why downloading songs without paying for them isn't theft -- it's copyright infringement. The difference is just as you say -- you must deprive the original owner of enjoyment of the thing stolen. If I download a song from you, you can still enjoy the song, so it isn't theft, and people who claim it is theft are knowingly pushing lies. It isn't at all like stealing a car, in which case you could
And while we're on the topic, it also isn't theft to skip commercials, or to time-shift, or to place-shift, or to resell anything you own, or to loan anything you own. Furthermore, libraries doesn't facilitate theft. The entire concept is so totally wrong and bad for humanity - it's frustrating to hear such lame arguments made.
By the way, the proof that even the RIAA lawyers know that their theory is baseless is that they have abandoned it and omitted it from all of the complaints they've filed during the past 5 months or so. See "RIAA Abandons "Making Available" in Amended Complaint in Rodriguez case" and "RIAA Abandons "Making Available" in New Complaints Being Filed"
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful