T he RIAA has succeeded in convincing the US court system in again helping the aging trade group to protect its obsolete business model. A federal judge has announced that he would order the service formerly known as Aimster, and now called Madster, to shut down shortly. According to a ZDNet article, the judge has also asked a gleeful RIAA to draft language for the injunction to be imposed on the service. From the ZDNet article:
The decision marks the Recording Industry Association of Americais (RIAA) second substantial court victory against a file-trading company, just a day after the RIAAis legal victory in bankruptcy court shut Napsteris doors for what appears to be the last time.
In a detailed and often pointed opinion, Judge Marvin Aspen said that Aimster, which played a brief but colorful role on the file-trading stage not long after Napsteris appearance, was clearly responsible for large-scale copyright infringement.
In the ruling, Aspen dismantled many of the arguments typically used in defense of file-swapping services. "Ongoing, massive, and unauthorized distribution and copying" of music through the service is something very different from "personal use," an activity protected by law, he said. It didnit matter that Aimster didnit know of individual, specific files being transferred, because it had "constructive" knowledge that copyright infringement was happening on a wide scale, he added.
There is more information in the full article, including information about the bankrupt status of the defendants, the thoughts of the founder of Aimster, and more from the judge. Itis an important story in the ongoing battle between the RIAA and its customers.