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RIAA Victory Over Usenet.com In Copyright Case
ozydingo writes "The RIAA has scored a victory in a decision on a copyright case that they filed back in 2007. US District Judge Harold Baer ruled in favor of the music industry on all its main theories: that Usenet.com is guilty of direct, contributory, and vicarious infringement. In addition, and perhaps most important for future cases, Baer said that Usenet.com can't claim protection under the Sony Betamax decision stating that companies can't be held liable of contributory infringement if the device is 'capable of significant non-infringing uses.' Bear noted that Usenet.com differed from Sony in that the sale of a Betamax recorder was a one-time deal, while Usenet.com's interaction with its users was an ongoing relationship. The RIAA stated in a brief note, 'We're pleased that the court recognized not just that Usenet.com directly infringed the record companies' copyrights but also took action against the defendants for their egregious litigation misconduct.'"
Of the many, many cases the RIAA has filed, a very small number involve people who probably really did not illegally file share. However, I am fairly sure that 99% of the people who are sued actually did break copyright laws.
They had illegally copied files on their servers, they didn't even own the originals (so backup excuse is out) and they charged for the service and did not pay any royalties even to independent artists and developers. So too bad for them, but if I'm selling my cool program for a miserable 5 bucks I expect that at least people ask me before starting selling it.
There is no TPB all over again here, they were plain criminals.
Nothing to see here, walk along people.