<nettime> Defend yourself against the RIAA - Open up your WiFi network

[nettime's avid crossposter <nettime@bbs.thing.net>]

[via: commons-law <commons-law@sarai.net>]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/08/01/RIAA_forced_to_drop_download_case/
RIAA forced to drop download case

Despite the success in the Kazzaa case earlier this week for the RIAA it
seems they have actually suffered a massive set back in their quest to
stifle the internet???s illegal download community.

In the recent case in California of Virgin vs. Marson, where Mrs. Marson
had a claim being made against her on the basis that she owned the
computer and paid for the internet through which the illegal file
sharing was taking place, the RIAA has decided to discontinue the case.
The assumption being made is that the use of an IP address as evidence
against file sharers is not enough to prove that the person being
charged committed copyright infringement.

Others, as in this report, are now suggesting that the best way to
defend yourself against the RIAA is to open up your WiFi network to your
neighbours. Essentially, the more people who are using the internet
through a shared IP address the weaker the evidence the RIAA can summon
against you.

For the RIAA this situation couldn???t really get much worse. Despite the
pyrrhic victory of having Kazzaa legitimised earlier in the week Ray
Beckerman, leading RIAA attorney, made this comment regarding the recent
landmark case:

"Faced with evidence that numerous other people had access to the
Internet connection and/or the computer and that any of those people
could have engaged in the allegedly infringing conduct."

The RIAA and MPAA now appear desperate in their quest to prevent illegal
downloading. The inquirer is even reporting that they are starting to
slip subliminal messages about the ???badness??? of internet piracy into
modern films ??? Charlie Demerjian described the effort in the Hollywood
blockbuster as thus:

???Now, they are slipping the message in through 'blowoff' lines, trying
to infect modern culture. There was a scene in Miami Vice where they
were discussing the big bad drug dealers, and how international they
were. The good guys listed all the thing the bad guys were capable of
bringing into the US, Cocaine, Heroin, etc, etc. They listed it as coke
from Colombia, heroin from Afganistan, X from Y and A from B. Pretty
normal stuff. At the end, they added 'pirated software from China'.
Blink.???

So what next for the RIAA? Is the case as monumental as it is being made
out to be, or will the RIAA lawyers find some way round it? Let us know
your views in the forum.





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