April 29, 2008 - Legal and Management
Major labels have been hit with a setback in Arizona today, where a federal District Court judge denied their motion for a summary judgment filed against alleged Kazaa file sharers Pamela and Jeffrey Howell.
Contrary to some other court decisions, this court held that making a music file available in a Kazaa shared folder is not an unlawful distribution of a copyrighted work. To infringe the right of distribution under copyright law, the owner must prove the "actual dissemination of copies or phonorecords," the court held.
In other words, copyright owners must prove that the file was actually downloaded by someone.
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Time will tell how this court decision will play out in the music business.
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