Lifehacker: What the RIAA Has In Store For You

[DudeAsInCool]

Stewart Rutlidge, a law student takes a look at new chicanery of the RIAA - you have not seen anything yet:

Ask the Law Geek: Install Kazaa... Get Fined $750 - The RIAA's Newest Plan of Attack?

READ MORE: ask the law geek, bittorrent, copyright, feature, file sharing, ipod, law, mp3, top

I think the RIAA is on steroids.

Coming off some huge victories against P2P and thousands of dastardly downloading teenagers, the RIAA is trying to take the definition of copyright infringement a step farther in a new case. If they win on their terms, then you're probably violating someone's copyright right now.

Read on to find out some of the newest tactics of those defenders of freedom at the RIAA, and feel free to post questions in the comments sections or send them to tips at lifehacker.com.

Question 1: Is it true that I can get in trouble for just having "Shared Folders" on my computer?

If the recording industry, the movie industry, the United States Attorney's Office and the Department of Justice have their way, then you could be punished for merely having Shared Folders on your computer. Get used to the name Elektra v. Barker [PDF]. It's probably going to be huge.

Although the RIAA has filed thousands of complaints, in this one, it takes its complaint a step farther and alleges that by merely having Shared Folders on your computer, you are "making files available for distribution" thus you are liable for copyright infringement.

But get this, you could be found liable even if all the files in your Shared Folder were legally obtained. That is one small step in wording but one gigantic leap in potential liability. Forget intent. Forget notice. Even forget ignorance. If you share copyrighted files, you are a law-breaking copyright infringer... no questions asked. I think this is absolutely ridiculous. You have to read this stuff [PDF] to believe it. (By the way, the defendant, Denise Barker, was sharing 611 MP3s through Kazaa; the RIAA described this as "copyright infringement on a massive scale." Hilarious.)

Fortunately, this case is brand new and only in the lower courts in New York. Of course, the EFF is on the case like a pack of wild dogs, and this could turn out to be the showdown that both technology and the government have been looking for. It actually could be just the thing the courts needed to see the potential effects of unlimited liability that the recording industry seems to desire.

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LifeHacker

Stewart Rutledge is in his final year of law school at the University of Mississippi. He's taken classes in intellectual property, cyberlaw, and international intellectual property. Stewart has no intentions of being a corporate lawyer and is open to job offers. More of Stewart's law geekery can be found in the Ask the Law Geek archive.