RIAA targets Usenet/Newsgroup Provider

[punky]

Well, Usenet.com have lost.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07...a_usenet_case/

A US district judge has ruled in favour of the Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) in the copyright case brought against Usenet.com that kicked off in autumn 2007.

“We’re pleased that the court recognised not just that Usenet.com directly infringed the record companies’ copyrights but also took action against the defendants for their egregious litigation misconduct,� said the RIAA in a short statement yesterday.

...

Judge Harold Baer of the Southern District of New York court dished out the ruling. He found Usenet.com guilty of “direct, contributory, and vicarious infringement�.

There's no word yet on what penalty the judge has hit Usenet.com

Bad news for all Usenet users. Whether you use it to download legal files or otherwise, you could find your provider hit anyway.

flood gates open on court cases news server move to countries that will not allow such court judgements and before long its business as usual. I hope

[brundles]

I must admit, I'm slightly surprised they won given the way (as I understand it) the technology works. That said, if someone who can position themselves as neutral in this can lose then there's no hope for a certain indexing site that's currently in the legal crosshairs.

I agree with zing though - it'll be the same as with the torrent trackers years ago. Most of them shut up shop for as long as it took to relocate to somewhere that didn't care. (With the exception of Loki torrent who took the donations given to fight and bought themselves an amnesty!)

By this stage it's a case of the stable door being closed after the horse has bolted.