RIAA filesharing mistrial

Team Member - J. Gorman - I came across this interesting story today via Engadget where apparently the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has lost an appeal against an alleged file-sharer who used Kazaa. Originally the file-sharer lost the trial and was fined $222,000 for having music files available to be shared on her computer. The interesting thing about the original trial was that the RIAA never had to prove that the user ever had Kazaa installed on her computer that she herself was sharing the files on the computer, or even what files she was sharing. In addition, a guilty verdict based on simply making song downloads "available" to be downloaded via P2P networks like Kazaa is apparently no longer a viable reason to award money to the RIAA. To win a ruling now the RIAA must prove each and every song that was downloaded by every user in order to collect damages on them. (Via Engadget article by Nilay Patel)