First off, The Dutch supreme court threw out an attempt by a music copyright agency to put controls on popular Internet file-swapping software system Kazaa. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the music trade group representing independent and major music labels including Warner Music, Sony Music, BMG, EMI and Universal Music, criticized the ruling as "one-sided" and vowed to continue its legal crusade elsewhere. "Today's ruling on Kazaa by the Dutch Supreme Court is a flawed judgement, but still leaves no doubt that the vast majority of people who are using file-swapping services like Kazaa are acting illegally -- whatever country they are in," the group said in a statement.
Basically, these guys are trying to do the RIAA thing in Europe. And speaking of the RIAA, A U.S. federal appeals court has dealt the RIAA a long awaited kick to the groin in its pursuit of file swappers, saying the music label lobby group can no longer force Internet providers to turn over their customers names. The court noted that it's the actual users that store and trade files - not the ISP. It then backed Verizon's argument that the ISP has no power to remove infringing material stored by users or even to identify the infringing material itself. The RIAA, of course, contends that blocking a user's access to the Internet would solve the infringement problem, giving customers no way to trade files. The court, however, again sided with Verizon here, saying an individual's access to copyrighted songs and to the Internet are two different matters all together. The judges were harsh at times in the opinion, calling some of the RIAA's arguments "silly" and largely saying the RIAA has no merits for its case.
Yes, this all makes me happy...I think I'll go download some stuff, just to celebrate.