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July 01, 2009

RIAA Wins Again: Judge finds Usenet Liable for Copyright Infringement...

Ars Technica | Read Full Story >

The Usenet.com marketing department tried to target young people who use file-sharing programs and convince them that Usenet.com was “a safe alternative to peer-to-peer file sharing programs they were getting shut down.” The website “also had pages devoted to certain popular recording artists and expressly promoted the availability of ‘free music’ and MP3 files for download.”

Usenet.com went so far as to insert meta tags into its website HTML that included terms like “warez” and “kazaa.” When a subscriber called technical support after having trouble downloading copyrighted material, “employees did at times recite Defendants’ official policy against assisting with potentially infringing conduct,” but still “went on to assist the subscriber in any event.” Usenet.com tutorials on how to use the service used infringing music files as examples.



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