arstechnica.com — Since the RIAA began filing lawsuits against suspected file sharers in 2003, not a single one has gone all the way to trial. It appears that the RIAA is dropping cases to avoid the possibility of losing and thus set a precedent against their witchhunt!
Oct 16, 2006 View in Crawl 4
lethalpotatoOct 16, 2006
"Keep the Internet and the law seperate"i agree, kiddie porn for all!/sarcasm
Closed AccountOct 16, 2006
Alf is great. I have seasons 1-4 on dvd :)
baddoxOct 16, 2006
If you mean people are falling for iTunes, you're right, but I've personally no use for overpriced, mainstream, DRM'ed songs. I have yet to find a suitable alternative for P2P, other than buying hard CD's of bands I actually LIKE (which I only do after downloading the CD's from P2P).
baddoxOct 16, 2006
@pkenjora,Indeed, it would be easy in some cases to "fake" an IP address. My small town has a wireless ISP that throws everyone right on the public net. That is to say, unless you have a home router, your NIC is plugged straight into a bridge (the wireless antenna outside your house) and you assign your public (and static, no less) IP address in your TCP/IP settings. Armed with the knowledge that every even IP address (x.x.x.2, x.x.x.4, x.x.x.6, etc.) on their subnet can be used, I could set my computer to any of those IP's other than the one I'm assigned, and do whatever I want. With terrible ISP setups like that, I don't see how they can even say an IP address is enough proof of identity to file a lawsuit.
d3athr1d3rOct 16, 2006
I once feared the RIAA because of the rediculous punishments the enforced for breaking any (or all in my case) of their rediculous rules, but after seeing the real face of this well orginized group i no longer fear them so much.
lifewithoutOct 16, 2006
This does not set a precedent, at least not in a legal sense. Also, if you set up an open wireless network then you are liable for willful neglect. All of these posts should start with, "I'm not a lawyer but...".
sophiaperennisOct 17, 2006
'Attorney Ray Beckerman, who runs the Recording Industry vs. The People blog, told Ars that the RIAA's evidence of a name, an IP address, and a list of songs in Elektra v. Wilke isn't enough to constitute "competent evidence sufficient to create a material issue of fact that can be used at trial."'For those who didn't know, Ray Beckerman is on Digg: <a class="user" href="http://digg.com/users/RayBeckerman">http://digg.com/users/RayBeckerman</a>
Closed AccountOct 17, 2006
I think companies and the general public is getting fed up with the RIAA and starting to fight back. Here is an example of a company who has taken a shot at the RIAA in a clever way: <a class="user" href="http://digg.com/music/Nexus_Radio_Turns_the_Other_Cheek_to_the_RIAA_with_Eye_Popping_Ad_4">http://digg.com/music/Nexus_Radio_Turns_the_Other_Cheek_to_the_RIAA_with_Eye_Popping_Ad_4</a>