Temporary Restraining Order For Aimster

In the latest salvo in an ongoing copyright-infringement fight between the Aimster peer-to-peer service and the music industry, a U.S. district court judge has issued a temporary restraining order against Aimster, ordering the company to immediately shut down all its computers and for its Internet connections to be terminated.

But as of press time, the Madster site—the name under which Aimster currently operates—and the Madster network remained operational.

The directive was made to enforce an earlier preliminary injunction against the swappery designed to block the trading of copyrighted works on its network.

As part of the restraining order, which runs through Dec. 22, U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Aspen of the Northern District of Illinois has directed Aimster to immediately shut down any and all computers and servers used in connection with the file-swapping service.

The Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA) and the National Music Publishers' Assn. filed a motion late last month accusing Aimster and its founder, Johnny Deep, of willfully violating the initial preliminary injunction ruling, issued Nov. 4. The RIAA is asking the court in response to appoint a compliance officer and to fine Deep $1,500 per day, with the money going to the court.

A contempt of court hearing is set for Dec. 19.

"Aimster and John Deep have no excuse for not complying with the court's Nov. 4 preliminary injunction," RIAA president Cary Sherman said in a statement. "This temporary restraining order will certainly make clear that the infringement must stop immediately, whether that is through Aimster's actions or actions by its Internet service provider."

In other RIAA litigation news, a Los Angeles federal court heard arguments Dec. 2 for summary judgment in an RIAA-led copyright-infringement lawsuit against StreamCast Networks, operator of the Morpheus network, and Grokster. The trade group is calling for the shuttering of the file-sharing networks without a full trial. The defendants are asking for a pretrial dismissal of the case. A ruling may come within the next month.