RIAA Victory Over Usenet.com In Copyright Case 289
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.'"
Re:Any good news lately? (Score:5, Funny)
Thank goodness (Score:5, Funny)
This legal decision has restored my faith in the legal system. A small group of people were able to fight for their rights against a huge behemoth corporation and win. ~
Re:Any good news lately? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:In other news . . . (Score:5, Funny)
Yes! You are correct. Nobody is using Usenet. Nobody. I can definitely say with complete cromulence that Usenet is a ghost service of no great importance. Whatsoever. At all. Now or ever, in fact.
Re:So can you sue Google for finding my ISO files? (Score:4, Funny)
Isn't it simpler to just use a local file search to find your own files? To each his own I guess...
Re:Any good news lately? (Score:3, Funny)
You can have a backyard pool and not have a fence around it? It is a law everywhere I have lived. If you have a pool you must have a 4 foot (or higher) fence around the yard or pool.
It may be different in other countries. The 6 US states that I have lived in all have had that law.
Was the RIAA around back in the days of the cassette tapes? Why did they not go after people copying those tapes? Did the RIAA know that the cassette would at some point break or wear out so it was not an issue? MP3s last a long time but not forever. I have copied my collection to a few different computers now and I have had to re-rip a lot of it. The songs started to sound wrong. They had pops and squeals and scratches that were not there before. If the RIAA left people copying cassettes alone since the cassettes would go bad for some reason, they same can be said for MP3s. At least for me anyway. It may take a longer time for the 'damage' to happen.
If this is for distribution, again why did the RIAA not go after the cassette people? I remember seeing one cassette player playing and 15-20 others recording the music while I was in college. There was a room setup for it. I really doubt that I was alone. Yet I never heard of the RIAA going after college students back then.
Re:In other news . . . (Score:5, Funny)
Well, I sure wish I could figure out which service provider the people not using Usenet are not using, because the ones I've been not using sure don't have anything worth not downloading to not download these days.
Re:Any good news lately? (Score:4, Funny)
> MP3s last a long time but not forever. I have copied my collection to a few different computers now and I have had to re-rip a lot of it. The songs started to sound wrong. They had pops and squeals and scratches that were not there before.
You are suffering from bit-rot. Your computer needs more voltage. Try attaching raw A/C power directly to your motherboard. That should give your bits the extra juice they need.
I hope you are not responsible for any important data.
Re:Any good news lately? (Score:4, Funny)
My wife's an insensitive clod, you ignorant buffoon!
Re:Any good news lately? (Score:3, Funny)
I'm glad nobody's saying anything to the contrary, then. If you continued reading, you would have noted that it actually says:
Do you loan or give away books to friends? do you want to do that with e-books when they become ubiquitous?
Reading comprehension HO!