Courts block US record industry bid for P2P names

Posted on 5 Jan 2005 at 14:30

A US Appeals Court has ruled the US record industry cannot compel ISPs to reveal the names of alleged illegal file sharers.

The St Louis court upheld an earlier ruling that the ISPs are merely a 'conduit' for illegally shared files and not directly repsonsible under the terms of the 1988 Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

This decision means that the Recording Industry Association of America will have to continue going through courts on a case-by-case basis to identify file sharers, a more time consuming and expensive process.

Nonetheless it is determined to continue with its attempt to bring illegal sharers to book.

'Our enforcement efforts won't miss a beat,' RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy said.

Similar action against file sharers in the UK is ongoing.

Author: Simon Aughton

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