riaa

Supreme Court won't hear Jammie Thomas' file-sharing case

A Minnesota woman's fight with the recording industry over her illegally sharing copyrighted songs is finally over.

The Supreme court has denied the petition of Jammie Thomas-Rasset to hear her case, leaving Thomas-Rasset to pay $222,000 to an industry group.

The five-year-long case started in 2007 when the Recording Industry Association of America accused Thomas-Rasset of sharing 1,700 copyrighted songs. After the case's initial filing, the RIAA reduced the number of songs to 24 and the jury rendered a $222,000 verdict in the case.

After multiple appearances and decisions in court -- which included the … Read more

RIAA slams Google as not doing enough to fight piracy

This isn't the first time, and probably won't be the last time, that the Recording Industry Association of America will complain about Google's work to tackle copyright infringement and piracy.

The trade group released a report card (PDF) today claiming that little has changed since Google promised to crack down on piracy six months ago.

"We recognize and appreciate that Google has undertaken some positive steps to address links to illegal music on its network," RIAA's EVP and general counsel Steven M. Marks said in a statement. "Unfortunately, our initial analysis concludes that … Read more

Jammie Thomas asks Supreme Court to take file-sharing case

Acting on her promise, Jammie Thomas-Rasset has finally fought her music uploading case all the way to the Supreme Court. Her lawyers announced today that they have filed an official petition asking the Supreme Court to review her long-running case, which has moved up through the courts over the past five years.

In 2007, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) accused Thomas-Rasset of copyright infringement for sharing 1,700 copyrighted songs -- the equivalent of 150 CDs. But the RIAA whittled down the number to 24. A jury heard the evidence against her and rendered a $222,000 verdict.… Read more

GOP flip-flops over supporting digital copyright reforms

In an bizarre policy flip-flop, a group of more than 160 House Republicans appeared to endorse extensive digital copyright reform on Friday, then disavowed its position the next day.

The House Republican Study Committee, an influential collection of conservatives that tends to pull the House leadership to the right, published a set of recommendations that could have been penned by Larry Lessig and the Electronic Frontier Foundation: expanded fair use rights, lower penalties for "willful" infringement, and dramatically abbreviated copyright terms.

That seemed to be more evidence that Republicans had become copyright skeptics, especially since most of the … Read more

Cable companies say they won't disconnect accused pirates

NEW YORK CITY -- Verizon and Time Warner Cable said today they won't pull the plug on customers accused of piracy through a forthcoming "six strikes" program.

Link Hoewing, Verizon's vice president, and Fernando Laguarda, Time Warner Cable's vice president, said at a forum organized by the Internet Society that after they repeatedly inform customers that that their activities appear to violate copyright law, the companies' obligation is fulfilled -- and no account termination will take place.

That could reduce some of the privacy and due process concerns about the Center for Copyright Information, a … Read more

RIAA condemns research that shines positive light on pirates

Researchers recently presented a paper that suggested U.S. pirates buy roughly 30 percent more music than those who do not file share. The Recording Industry Association of America wasn't best pleased and has responded by stating the research is "misleading."

Originally reported last month by TorrentFreak, the research came from the American Assembly, a public affairs group affiliated with Columbia University.

Joshua Friedlander, RIAA's vice president of research and strategic analysis, decided to refute the study in a blog post on Monday:

Some commentary has misleadingly reported that people who use P2P services like BitTorrent … Read more

Obama faces piracy, privacy tests in his second term

The most controversial technology topics in President Obama's second term are likely to be two political flashpoints: piracy and privacy.

When Internet activists allied with an hastily assembled coalition of Silicon Valley companies blocked votes on a pair of Hollywood-backed copyright bills early this year, they didn't end efforts to slap stiffer anti-piracy sanctions on the Internet. They merely postponed the fight.

The Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act are dead, of course. Those names have become radioactive on Capitol Hill, thanks to a broad public outcry that involved millions of Internet users and actually … Read more

Thomas-Rasset to take $222K copyright case to the Supremes

Lawyers for Jammie Thomas-Rasset confirmed what many people who have followed her case likely expected.

The Minnesota woman found liable for sharing 24 copyrighted songs via the Web will try and take her case to the U.S. Supreme Court, Kiwi Camara, her attorney, told CNET today. It must be noted that there's no guarantee that the court will hear her case.

Earlier today, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals found largely in favor of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the trade group representing the four largest music-recording companies. The appellate court granted an RIAA request to … Read more

Appeals court sides with RIAA, Jammie Thomas owes $222,000

The top four record labels have won a significant decision in their long-running suit against Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the Minnesota woman found by a court to have "lied" about illegally uploading music to the Web.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit found unanimously in favor of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the trade group for Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Music:

We conclude that the recording companies are entitled to the remedies that they seek on appeal. The judgment of the district court is vacated, and the … Read more