Judge to RIAA: You can't sue over songs 'made available' via P2P

In a widely anticipated decision, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas ruled Monday to reject the RIAA's claim that a Kazaa user who merely "made available" copyrighted music necessarily violated the law. Rather, he said, the RIAA would have to demonstrate that unlawful copying actually took place. While the judge rejected the RIAA attorneys' "making available" argument, he did provide them with a road map showing a detour that might still allow them to arrive at their destination. (News.com)

Kazaa downloads cost one man $750 per song in RIAA suit

James V. Lewis was sued by the labels in August 2007 after an IP address flagged by MediaSentry was traced to his ISP account. Lewis never showed up in court, and the RIAA filed for a default judgment in October. After a hearing held last week, the judge gave the RIAA what it was looking for: a default judgment in the amount of $3,000 plus an additional $420 in court costs. (Ars Technica)

Woman To Record Industry: Stop Spying

A woman who claims the recording industry's anti-music piracy campaign threatens and intimidates innocent people has filed a new complaint accusing record companies of racketeering, fraud and illegal spying. Tanya Andersen originally sued the Recording Industry Association of America after RIAA representatives threatened to interrogate her young daughter if she didn't pay thousands of dollars for music she downloaded from somebody else. (CBS News)

RIAA Sends More Pre-Lawsuit Letters To Colleges One Year Into Campaign

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), on behalf of its member record companies, has sent a new wave of 401 pre-litigation settlement letters to 12 universities this week. The letters cite individuals for online music theft via peer-to-peer services such as Ares, BitTorrent, Gnutella, Limewire, and Morpheus. (PR)

RIAA Training Video Leaked onto Torrent Sites

The RIAA apparently produced a new video, already available on a variety of torrent tracker sites, in conjunction with the National District Attorneys Association with the goal of instructing U.S. prosecutors on how to deal with music piracy cases. According to early reports, the video, called In Trial, also provides instructions on how to get an RIAA investigator qualified as a court expert. (Wired)

CRB Denies DiMA Legal Question Request

The Copyright Royalty Board today rejected a request by the Digital Media Assn. to have the Register of Copyrights decide whether interactive streams should fall under a compulsory license, Billboard.biz has learned. The order came during the initial trial phase of the hearing process, which began in 2006, to set rates for mechanical and digital deliveries of compositions that fall under section 115 of the Copyright Act, known as the compulsory mechanical license provision. (Billboard)

Copy a CD, owe $1.5 million under "gluttonous" PRO-IP Act

Not content with the current (and already massive) statutory damages allowed under copyright law, the RIAA is pushing to expand the provision. The issue is compilations, which now are treated as a single work. In the RIAA's perfect world, each copied track would count as a separate act of infringement, meaning that a copying a ten-song CD even one time could end up costing a defendant $1.5 million if done willfully. (Ars Technica)

Former FBI Principal To Command West Coast Anti-Piracy Unit

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced the hiring of former senior FBI official Kathy Leodler as the new Director of Investigations for its Western Region Anti-Piracy Unit. Leodler comes to the RIAA with 23 years of leadership and operational experience as a special agent with the FBI. As the Director of Investigations for the Western Region, Leodler will oversee all anti-piracy RIAA operations in the western United States and assist law enforcement authorities engaged in music piracy investigations. (PR)