RIAA wins court victory against Usenet.com

U.S. District Judge Harold Baer has ruled in favor of the music in their case against Usenet.com. According to the judge Usenet.com is guilty of direct, contributory, and vicarious copyright infringement.

The most interesting thing about the case is that the judge has denied Usenet the safe harbour first established in the case of Sony versus Universal  in 1984.  Usenet.com contented that their service was "capable of significant non-infringing uses" and therefore could not be liable for contributory copyright infringement and vicarious liability.

However, the judge ruled that their was a significant difference between the serivce offered by Usenet.com and Sony. Unlike Sony, who had no further contact with the user once a videotape was sold, Usenet maintains an ongoing relationship with the customer and does has some say in how the customer uses the service. By enticing users to pay 19$ for a service that would allow them download copyrighted music, Usenet.com benefited from the copyright infringements.

The judge was also displeased with the conduct of Usenet.com in the case. During the evidence discovery phase, Usenet.com allegedly destroyed evidence and obstructed the efforts of the RIAA to examine witnesses.