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Music Industry Faces Dual Setbacks

By Samuel Fineman, Esq.

Just as the reinvigorated Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed its third wave of lawsuits to thwart the trading of copyrighted music online, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in a watershed ruling, struck a critical blow to the viability of those suits brought under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 17 U.S.C. 512(h). On a separate but equally important front, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands has reaffirmed the legality of one type of peer-to-peer (P2P) filesharing software known as KaZaA.

The three-judge panel's ruling in Recording Industry Association of America v. Verizon Internet Services, Inc., No. 03-7015 (D.C. Cir. Dec. 19, 2003), poses a monumental setback for the industry's controversial anti-piracy campaign. The decision overturned U.S. District Judge John D. Bates' recent decision to enforce subpoenas filed against certain Internet service providers (ISPs) to divulge the identities of users who allegedly transferred copyrighted materials in violation of the Copyright Act.

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