Tuesday, February 07, 2006

RIAA's "Making Available" Argument Comes to a Head this Week

The RIAA's newly discovered argument that merely "making available" is in and of itself a copyright infringement, even without any physical copying, comes to a head this week in not one, but two, cases in Manhattan federal court, Elektra v. Barker and Atlantic v. Does.

In Elektra the issue arises in the context of a motion to dismiss complaint.

In Atlantic it comes about in a motion to vacate the ex parte discovery order.

Both sets of litigation papers may be found in our Index of Litigation Documents.

Reply papers in Elektra were filed on February 6th:

Defendant's Reply Memorandum of Law in Support of Motion to Dismiss Complaint

Defendant's reply memorandum in Atlantic was filed on February 7th:

Reply Memorandum of Law of John Doe #8 in Further Support of Motion to Vacate Ex Parte Discovery Order

For unexplained reasons, SONY BMG withdrew from both cases after the motions were made.

Keywords: copyright download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs

2 comments:

Jonathan said...

If this argument holds any water, then why the heck wouldn't it be copyright infringement to leave a CD where someone could steal it, or make a copy of it?

raybeckerman said...

Exactly, Jonathan.

Fortunately, it doesn't hold any water.