The lawyers at the RIAA are having a field day with seemingly any business the could enable the sharing of files. I have no doubt that plenty of illicit files are shared on the Usenet. It’s also true that most burglar’s access their victims via public streets.  No one is suggesting we should rip up the streets to stop burglaries. For now, the low hanging fruit for litigation seems to be enterprises who were foolish enough to advertise that illicit files are shared on their systems: IE Pirate Bay and now Usenet.com.

In a decision that hands the RIAA an overwhelming victory, U.S. District Judge Harold Baer of the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of the music industry on all its main theories: that Usenet.com is guilty of direct, contributory, and vicarious infringement. In addition, and perhaps most important for future cases, Baer said that Usenet.com can’t claim protection under the Sony Betamax decision. That ruling says companies can’t be held liable for contributory infringement if the device they create is “capable of significant non-infringing uses.” (Cnet)

As we have mentioned in earlier posts, there is no  major US ISP that offers usenet service with their access accounts - from fear of lawsuit. As long as the lawyering sticks to those who openly invite using thier services to break the law, we’re OK. Unfortunately, I think we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg. This will certainly send a chillng effect through the industry, and we can expect smaller usenet providers who have done nothing wrong to close up shop even if the RIAA lawyers don’t attack them next. Actually, with it’s lawyers working the current laws that were authored by big media, it’s not a question of if but when.