DISQUS

Perhaps you need to read this article in Wired: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/01/riaa-s...

The Washington Post fell for their damage control attempts once they realised what the backlash would be.

Two points: The attorney in the Jamie Thomas filesharing case specifically asked if she had permission to copy the CDs to her computer. Surely that's a nonsense question if she has the right to do so.

Second, the RIAA is claiming the Sony testimony about copying CDs to a computer is theft was "a mistake". I think that's a lie. I think it was in Sony and the RIAAs interest to make that statement (by a lawyer and under oath). And it's now in their interest to retract it.

The idea that Sony's head of litigation made such a massive error while testifying in a court of law strains credibility.

and indeed they’ve argued against liability in such a case on a few occasions (once on the theory that a license to do so was implied).

Again, where it was convenient for them to take that position, they do. But read the Wired article. When asked point blank, they talk about being "allowed" to copy your CDs, but they don't admit that you have a right to do so (i.e., that copyright law does not give them the right to prevent you).

It would be like Ford coming out and saying "Actually, you don't have the right to drive your car across state lines, but don't worry, we won't sue you for it." Would you accept that?

I don't think it's so clear that she did it.

As a home user, her computer probably does not have security settings that require a password and probably boots into the account of whatever user first set up the computer. It's reasonable to assume she'd use the same Windows username as she has for all her online accounts.

Kazaa, when installed, uses the Windows username of the account it is installed under. It doesn't require you to specify the username, it doesn't even ask you.

So, it's possible that someone else, possibly a friend, ex-boyfriend, child, friend of a child, etc installed Kaaza. She might not have noticed or realized it was still running.