'The Recording Industry Association of America ('RIAA') has told seven P2P software companies to get with the programme -- or face the consequences. ... The RIAA hasn't said which P2P networks it sent cease and desist letters to, but the Wall Street Journal yesterday named LimeWire, BearShare and WinMX, and it's not hard to guess who the others might be.

The demands come three months after the US Supreme Court ruled that P2P providers Grokster and StreamCast [could be] responsible for the actions of their users [pending factual findings by a lower court]. If P2P users share content without the permission of the copyright holder [and the software developer actively induced or encouraged that infringement] then they're guilty of copyright infringement and so too are networks that did nothing to stop [and actively encouraged] them, the Supreme Court said [inter alia] in June. ...

The RIAA claimed the Supreme Court judgement had given P2P companies notice "there is a right way and a wrong way to conduct a business", and in the intervening months they have been granted "ample opportunity to do the right thing". It said firms that continue to allow users to share and download illegal copies, and "knowingly operate on the wrong side of that line do so at their own risk".

LimeWire, for one, now asks anyone downloading their software if they intend to infringe copyright, refusing to offer the software to anyone who foolishly checks the 'yes' option. That may appease the RIAA, but we doubt it -- there are plenty of copies of the code out there already, and when we checked this afternoon, still rather a lot of illicit material to grab.'

Originally by The Register - Internet and Law: Digital Rights/Digital Wrongs, 12:25 PM

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