[Am-info] $1M Penalty For Company Harboring MP3 Files

[Fred A. Miller]

$1M Penalty For Company Harboring MP3 Files

A company that allegedly stored digital music files on an
internal server has agreed to pay a $1 million settlement to the
Recording Industry Association of America, rather than face a
copyright-infringement lawsuit.

According to the RIAA, technology consulting firm Integrated
Information Systems Inc. was running a dedicated server
containing thousands of MP3 files on its network, allowing all
employees access to the music. In August, acting on an E-mail
tip, the RIAA sent a letter to the Arizona company telling it to
deactivate the server and threatening to sue for copyright
infringement. Negotiations to settle the case began soon after
that, with IIS eventually agreeing to pay a penalty. IIS did not
immediately return calls for comment.

Jupiter Research analyst Aram Sinnreich says it isn't clear
whether it's against the law for a company to store MP3s on an
internal network. Most activities involving online music haven't
been tested in court or been specifically addressed by the law,
he says, but it still might behoove some companies to create an
auditing process to search their internal systems for potentially
infringing files, in order to avoid lawsuits. "They should assess
what their actual risk is of being audited and policed, and
assess what it would cost them in terms of resources and employee
morale," he says. "I would imagine for a lot of small to midsize
businesses, it just wouldn't be worth the effort, but for larger
organizations it could be a good idea." - David M. Ewalt

Read more at
How To Use Up Your Employer's Bandwidth
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eGkt0Bce7K0V20BZ2g0AM

Betamax Defense Won't Cut It For Music-Swapping Site Operators
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eGkt0Bce7K0V20BacL0Ap


-- 
Fred A. Miller
Systems Administrator
Cornell Univ. Press Services
fm@cupserv.org, www.cupserv.org
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