draupnir7257 used our newssubmit to tell us that an Arizona-based company has paid a one million dollar fine to the RIAA for allowing their employees to share music files on their internal network.
The fine is also intended to give a clear message to other companies and individuals of what can happen is you share pirated music.
Arizona-based Integrated Information Systems Inc., which ran a dedicated server permitting employees to access and distribute thousands of music files over the company network, agreed to pay the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) $1 million rather than face the music in court. |
The trade group, which represents the major music companies like AOL Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Music, Bertelsmann AG's BMG, Sony Corp.'s Sony Music, Vivendi Universal and EMI Group Plc has been on a legal crusade to stamp out online copyright infringement since successfully hobbling Napster, the original song-swapping service, with a preliminary injunction last year.
``This sends a clear message that there are consequences if companies allow their resources to further copyright infringement,'' said Matt Oppenheim, RIAA Senior Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs.
``We applaud IIS for accepting its responsibility and working actively with us to settle this case out of court.''
IIS is an Arizona-based company offering various technology and business consulting services. One of the products offered by IIS, ironically, included software that provided secure distribution of copyrighted digital material.
It seems not only this company and the average consumer is breaking the law, also other companies have been investigated: The RIAA on reached a $3.2 million settlement from CD manufacturing company DOCdata USA to resolve claims the company had pressed dozens of infringing CDs
And if that is not enough, last week the RIAA sued Technicolor Inc., one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of music and video programming, for allegedly producing pirated CDs of major artists.
Source: Bayarea.com
