Aimster, a US-based peer-to-peer file sharing service that combines
elements of Napster with instant messaging (IM) systems, has filed
a lawsuit against the recording industry, asking a court to declare
that its business model does not infringe copyrights.
Johnny Deep, CEO of Aimster said: “We’re asking the court for a
ruling that says it would be wrong to sue us because we’re doing
nothing wrong.” The company received a letter from Napster’s
nemesis, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),
warning Aimster that if it did not block the sharing of copyright
protected music files, the RIAA would sue.
Aimster, which has over 4 million users, encrypts all
transmissions on its network, making it futile to monitor the
activities of users, who share their files with those on their IM
“buddy lists”, as opposed to Napster, where one user’s files are
potentially available to all other Napster users. Aimster's legal
argument is that, as a private communication service, any attempt
to monitor member activities would breach users’ privacy and that
breaking the encryption would itself be a violation of US law.
Following the injunction against Napster that caused it to begin
filtering unauthorised music files on its service, the number of
downloads has fallen by 36% in the past month, according to
internet music research firm Webnoize. In April, Napster users
downloaded 1.59 billion tracks, down from 2.49 billion in
March.
