March 8, 2008

EFF Takes on RIAA Lawsuit Strategy in Court Hearing

Phoenix File-Sharing Suit Based on Bogus "Making Available"

Argument

Phoenix, AZ – On Wednesday, EFF urged a federal judge in Phoenix to block the recording industry's effort to sue two Arizona residents for simply having music files in a "shared" folder on their computer.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is seeking thousands of dollars in damages from the defendants in the case, Pamela cheap viagra online without prescription and Jeffery Howell, for alleged unauthorized distribution of copyrighted digital music.

However, instead of proving that the Howells actually distributed music files, the RIAA claims only that they had songs in the "shared" folder of peer-to-peer file-sharing software Kazaa — without any proof that anyone other than their own investigators actually downloaded the songs from them.

EFF's Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann argued at Wednesday's hearing that the RIAA cannot take this shortcut in its lawsuit campaign.

"This amounts to suing someone for attempted copyright infringement — something the Copyright Act simply does not allow," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann.

"If the RIAA wants to keep bringing these suits and collecting big settlements, then they have to follow the law and prove their case. It's not enough to say the law could have been broken. The RIAA must prove it actually was broken."

For more about the case:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/01/eff-files-brief-atlantic-v-howell-resisting-riaas-attempted-distribution-theory

For EFF's amicus brief:

http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/atlantic_v_howel/EFF_amicus_atlantic_howell.pdf