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Debbie Foster, an american citizen, was sued by RIAA member company Capitol Records for
allegedly sharing copyrighted material on a P2P file sharing network.
However, the alleged infringement was apparently committed by someone
else with access to her ISP account. Foster had the case dismissed
last summer, and as reported by Listening Post earlier this month, was awarded attorney's fees in excess of $50,000.
For the RIAA, which functions as the legal and lobbying arm of the
labels it represents, this was very bad news indeed. If the ruling
stands, the RIAA will have to be much more careful about who it sues
going forward, adjusting its scatter-shot approach to filing such
lawsuits in order to avoid suing the wrong people. But if the RIAA's appeal is granted, open Wi-Fi hotspots could become standing invitations for the organization to sue.
Predictably, the RIAA has filed
a "motion for reconsideration" of Judge West's decision to force the
RIAA to pay for Foster's legal fees. In the motion, the plaintiffs
emphasize a key point: They want the judge to rule that the owner of an
ISP account is responsible for all activity on that account, which
could have a chilling effect on public wireless access and open
hotspots. (The appeal also made the point that Foster should be held liable if she was aware
of the infringement occuring via her account; in the case of someone
with an open Wi-Fi network, that could constitute something as simple
as experiencing traffic slowdowns.)
If the judge rules that we're each legally responsible for all of the
traffic that comes through our ISP account, open, unprotected Wi-Fi
hotspots would become a serious legal liability, the hundreds of
thousands (millions?) of people who depend on their neighbors for Wi-Fi
will be out of luck, while altruistic (or ignorant) folks who leave their wireless
networks open could find themselves embroiled in an RIAA lawsuits even
if they've never shared a single song in their lives.
This is not the first time the RIAA has tried to establish a precedent
for making the ISP account holder responsible for all traffic; the
organization attempted a similar thing
last summer in a case called Virgin vs, Marson, but was forced to
discontinue it after the defense proved that all sorts of people were
accessing the Internet through her account.
Hopefully, the judge in Capitol vs. Foster will feel the same way as the judge in that case did.
It'd be a shame if open Wi-Fi hotspots became yet another casualty of
the RIAA's war against reality.
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