The case in question, Elektra v. Perez, follows the pattern of the numerous other file-sharing lawsuits brought by the RIAA. After MediaSentry discovered a number of songs in a Kazaa user’s download folder, the RIAA filed a “John Doe” lawsuit which was supplanted once the defendant, Dave Perez, was identified by his ISP as the owner of the account allegedly used to share music.
In his response, Perez denied the accusations of file sharing and said that even if he was responsible for the “perez@kazaa” account, merely making the files available in a shared folder for other Kazaa users falls short of infringement.
Judge Aiken ruled in favor of the RIAA. In her order, the judge noted that in a copyright infringement case, the plaintiff needs to do two things: demonstrate ownership of the material and show that the party accused of infringement “violated at least one exclusive right granted to copyright holders under 17 U.S.C. § 106.” Making songs available for download fulfills the second requirement, wrote Judge Aiken.
This appears to be the first instance in which a judge presiding over a file-sharing case has ruled that having a shared folder available on Kazaa constitutes copyright infringement.
Note to self….. don’t share any folders.
Real Pirates Don’t Share!!! AAAARRRRRRRR!!!!!
Go Analog.
the key is to use torrents, not kazaa/edonkey/napster/etc
Wow.. people still use Kazza?
How exactly is using torrents safer? When I use bit torrent, I still see the IP addresses of the people that are sharing.
Fer Christsake will people just stop buying music!. Its not oxygen, we don’t need it to live. if you still buy music and are complaining about the RIAA STFU
The idea is to let the RIAA die a slow, deserved death. And it will…but it will take time. They have tons of money at the moment, but that won’t last forever. Maybe not in my lifetime I’ll see the ending of this dinosaur…..but perhaps my son or his child will.
They are dying, and they know it. They’re trying to hold on to their very high-paying/do-no-work jobs. I also suppose you didn’t hear about the President of Warner Music admitting to an interviewer about how he knows that his kids have illegally downloaded music…but gee, where are the RIAA lawsuits for him?
http://tinyurl.com/y4pm6u
What hypocrites.
#5
How exactly is using torrents safer? When I use bit torrent, I still see the IP addresses of the people that are sharing.
1 you are not sending the full file just little bits of it
2 encryption this makes it hard for them to tell what is realy being sent and I think they have to do that
The RIAA under its current model would just have to find something they “own” on a torrent search start the download and sue whoever they find sharing it. this is basically how they are finding the songs being shared. The only thing that is stopping mass MPAA and RIAA lawsuits with Torrents is you can’t simply look at what is shared in their media folder like you can with Kazaa. So they would have to do it one song or movie at a time. Which isn’t the number they want for a highly visible/profitable lawsuit. If anyone else has any more information about how these vampires work I would love to hear it.
#7
Those kids do not have to worry about the RIAA for two reasons. For one thing, their father is the president of Warner, and the second and main reason is They’ve got money.
The human race has become dependent on money like life support. Everything revolves around money. Billions of lives, governments, and the law, have made the flow of money their heartbeat. If money were to disappear, the human race would flatline… and those kids would have a criminal record.
bunch of crap.
music companies need to realize that making it easier to BUY music is the key.
iTunes is very close.
1. stop CD burn limits. (annoying)
2. Older songs should be less expensive.
Example:
NEW .99
3 months .49
1 year .29
FYI, all: I got an e-mail from my ISP saying that a company had fingered me for sharing a copyrighted work via BitTorrent protocol. It wasn’t me, of course, it was someone else using my open wireless network. No action has been taken, but it shows that you are not protected by using torrents, you are just less juicy of a target.
Along with other encryption/anonymization schemes, you might want to check out Relakks, (www.relakks.com) to anonymize your internet traffic in order to avoid being fingered like I was. And close your wifi network. 🙂
Everybody, listen up. Intellectual property rights are important. I’m just tired of the mental gymnastics everybody here performs when IP comes up. Of course, if it’s in the “shared folder”, it doesn’t automatically mean there is infringement, but who’s kidding who. We can laugh about how the government may not have proved it beyond a reasonable doubt, but, c’mon.
I know all of you who believe that this person is innocent, believes that O.J. is innocent.
Once again: Intellectual property is just that: property, and the ‘buyer’ can buy/lease/whatever that property under whatever terms the creator/owner decides. END-OF-STORY. If you don’t like the terms, DON’T BUY IT. None of this crap you possible criminals are talking about is remotely a necessity (water, food, whatever), these are LUXURY items, in any sense of the word. #6 had it right.
Does anyone here actually produce anything creative for a living? If you do, do you allow and condone unlimited copying of your creativity? If you do, do you believe that people that steal your creative output deserve punishment?
Just wondering.
When will these people learn that Kazaa is outdated and that they better get with the times if they want to stay one step ahead of the RIAA?
Wait there! OPEN your wifi network. That way no one can prove if it was you sharing files and not the punk neighbor kids hacking your wifi.
Wow, this is getting good!!!
(grabs more popcorn…… munch munch munch)
GnT
You could just move to Canada and avoid all of this crap.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5182641.html
WOOT #8 with the right answer!
#12 – close the wifi & use WPA authentication – WEP sucks
#15 is correct. To protect yourself play stupid. #13, those IP ‘rights’ were bought and paid for buy ‘donating’ money to politicians. Those extentions to copyright were frak’n criminal.
ok ok, i’ll agree with ya that playing stupid is probably the right thing to do IF you get fingered by the RIAA
untill that happens, close wifi, use wpa
i’d be honored to have me ideas.. shared
avenues for sticking it to the RIAA are getting diluted by these clowns – every week is a new low for these reptiles. somewhere, a sleazy lawyer chasing amulances with a big hammer is reading about the RIAA and thinking – “damn, respect.”
I would like to point out that this conversation violated the digital mellinium copyright act clause pertaining to conversations about piracy that promote or inform as to it’s methods. Just figgered’ I’d let you know 🙂
hi, the UAE have emailed me today that your blog is not blocked anymore on their network. I checked with one of my friends who live there and he said it is not blocked.
Welcome back!
I’m with #13. Lou, you are 100% correct. Yes, the RIAA is going too far, and no, this isn’t going to solve their problems.
But seriously, how many of you are sharing music so you can get it for free rather than buying it? That’s illegal, it’s unethical, and there’s no freakin’ way you can justify it, period. Face it…all this business about royalties, DRM, Apple, and all the rest is a smoke screen so you can get music for free.
That said, I believe DRM is draconian, it goes too far. But the reason it exists is because so many people stole music rather than buying it. Quit stealing the music, buy it or don’t, and the RIAA has no case and no cause. If you don’t want to buy but need to listen then get XM or Sirius.
What is it with the kids today…we read about cheating in school being rampant, and they want to steal IP, too. Has this generation no ethics?
“and there’s no freakin’ way you can justify it”
Is buying more music justification?! Back in the original Napster days I’d find music I’d like and then check out the person’s shared list. I figured if we both like one artist, we’d like other artists. I was exposed to more new music than I ever had before. I went from buying maybe a CD a year to about three CDs a month.
“DRM… is a smoke screen so you can get music for free.”
Nope, if iTunes or some other service sold its music free of DRM for a buck a song I’d gladly sign up.
“If you don’t want to buy but need to listen then get XM or Sirius.”
Which is quite ironic as the RIAA is suing both of those guys for copyright infringement! It appears that the RIAA wants satellite radio to pay more than normal radio. Which doesn’t pay anything to the RIAA, just to the song writers.
What you have to remember is that new technology always affects copyright. Cable TV violated copyrights in the very beginning. The Cable companies at the time simply transmitted broadcast channels over its wires without paying anyone a dime. Congress liked the idea of cable TV and the money the cable companies were dumping in its lap, so they allowed it to continue.
Radio also didn’t pay royalties. Broadcasters simply played popular music on the radio! Oh god, they were STEALING! But due to the importance of the new technology radio broadcasters did not have to pay performance fees but only had to pay royalties to the song writers.
Heck, even back to the old scroll playing pianos! Once again the companies producing the scrolls didn’t pay a dime to anyone. And even the courts at the time agreed that the scroll in itself was not a performance. Finally the law was changed so that the copying of copyrighted works for profit constituted an infringement.
Now we don’t even need copying. Now we don’t need any profit motive. It would appear that just leaving my CDs in a public area would be infringement now.
I don’t buy Sirius for music. I buy it for Howard Stern. The RIAA can eat a dick.
#27, well put. I agree.
Just a note.
The Judge did not rule that merely having a shared folder will uphold the accusation of copyright infringement. Her opinion was in response to a Motion to have the lawsuit dismissed. In such a Motion, the Judge must look at any evidence in favor of the other party and if there is anything of controversy, must deny the Motion to Dismiss. This decision does not carry any legal weight except in this case. Of course, our legal minds here at DU might elaborate better then I have on this point.