EFF fights RIAAs “Making Available” Argument
I hate the RIAA. They use their vast resources to bring thousands of individuals and companies to court over alleged copyright infringements that they've often only performed the tiniest investigation into. On top of they, they allege grossly inflated damages and bully defendants into settling out of court simply because these people can't afford to properly defend themselves.
On the other hand, I love the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They keep an eye out for issues that I might never see coming and they have the money to pay for lawyers to research and develop arguments that often make the RIAA's lawyers look like the donkeys they are.
Recently, the EFF got involved in an ongoing case in which the RIAA alleged that simply making a copyrighted work available for download constitutes Copyright Infringement. You can check out the article on Slashdot and read the full amicus curaie brief here.
The brief is typical legalese but it is actually very informative on the issue and, in my opinion, pretty much shuts down the RIAA's entire argument. This has been an interesting case where the court had previously made a summary judgment in favor of the RIAA, only to reconsider at the request of the Defendant. In December, the RIAA submitted a supplemental brief claiming that it is illegal to make a copy of music you legally own and compress it into mp3 format. This claim is in direct opposition to the stance of the RIAA's own lawyers in previous cases, and is contrary to many established precedents and interpretations of the Audio Home Recording Act.
In short, this whole case should be dismissed as one of a number of attempts by the RIAA to prosecute someone without bothering to build a real case first.