Music file-sharing lawsuits stumble.(Law & Regulation)

Recording Industry Association of America's policy of suing users of peer-to-peer (P2P) Internet file-sharing programmes who illegally download copyrighted music has been dealt a setback by US courts. A federal appellate court in Washington DC has reversed a series of earlier decisions that allowed the RIAA to obtain subscriber information easily from Internet service providers (ISPs). Court ruled that under US copyright law the RIAA was not entitled to send out subpoenas to ISPs for the identity of P2P network users without prior judge's consent (see 2003/38a3). Although the deci