RIAA -1 Students - 0

Nine students at the University of Maine who are taking on the Recording Industry Association of America were rebuffed last week by a magistrate judge. The industry group accused the students of sharing music files online in violation of copyright law and sued them for damages. The group knows the students only by their Internet addresses and is demanding that university officials provide the group with the names of the students linked to those addresses. The case has attracted media attention because two of the accused students are represented by University of Maine law students.

Margaret J. Kravchuk, a U.S. magistrate judge, sided with the recording-industry group. She recommended that the federal district court in Maine reject the students’ motion to dismiss the group’s lawsuit against them, saying that she disagreed with their reading of the 2007 Supreme Court case Bell Atlantic Corp v. Twombly. But in a footnote to her decision, she advised the court to impose sanctions against the industry group for the way it went about filing suits against the unnamed students. —Andrea L. Foster

Beware music downloaders!  Oh and, skip the Grammys on Sunday and go out and listen to a local band.  Do it for the band.  Do it for me.  Do it for yourself.  If you find something worth sharing, drop ol, Dirk D a line.