doodledee

There's this program named Aimster that was pretty popular a few years back or so. It allowed people using AOL's Instant Messenger service to share their files with their buddies on the AOL IM network. Big surprise, Aimster was mostly used to trade MP3's.

Aimster is still around, though now it's called Madster because AOL sued to force a name change. (The author claimed it was named after his daughter Aimee). And while with an estimated 2 million users it's still plenty popular, it's not nearly the dynamo that it was in its heyday. Part of that is probably the result of the growth of other filesharing applications and part of that is probably because Aimster was sued by the RIAA.

In a nutshell, the RIAA is arguing that the users of Aimster violated copyright laws when they shared/downloaded MP3s. Because Aimster facilitated the illegal transfer, they argue that Aimster is itself therefore inherently illegal.

Aimster's defense is built around the fact that it doesn't *have* to be used to trade illegal files; in theory it could be used to exchange all kinds of *legal* stuff. This argument is based on a Supreme Court ruling from the early 80's where Universal Studios sued Sony when VCRs first came out. Universal was saying that VCRs were illegal because they allowed people to copy copyrighted material. Sony won by arguing that that because a VCR could also be used to record TV shows to watch at another time - a process that was deemed legal - that VCRs themselves were not illegal.

Unfortunately, using the Sony defense seems a little weak in this case. Sony won their case because the 'legal' use of a VCR was far and away the most popular one. In Aimster's case, they haven't been able to provide proof of even a single 'legal' file being transferred. That's not to say it doesn't happen, obviously, they just don't have proof.

I'm all for programs like Aimster existing. In fact I think it's nearly critical that they be allowed to. I just don't like the way this case is shaping up.

The actual trial started today and the coverage is actually pretty good reading. Here's one particularly solid eyewitness report.

Rage on, rage on my brother.