U.S. Appeals Court Reinstates 2008 Antitrust Suit Against Music Industry

From DailyTech: The music industry is most known for the willy-nilly sue everyone antics of the RIAA as it sought to stamp out piracy. During the heyday of the suits, the RIAA sued people that were dead, kids, and many others with little or no proof that they had actually done anything wrong.

The massive legal assault on suspected music pirates led to some notable victories by the music industry such as the 2008 legal victory for the industry that set a precedent for people who made music available on file sharing sites. There was a significant case where the people charged the music industry with wrongdoing for a change.

In October of 2008, a district judge in New York dismissed a case brought against defendants including Bertelsmann AG, EMI Group, Sony Corp, Vivendi SA and Warner Music Group Corp and various affiliates of these music companies. The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York has now ruled that the judge on the original 2008 case was in error when he dismissed the suit.

The suit alleges that the defendants named in the original case had conspired together to fix the price of music sold online. The suit also alleged that the defendants limited the availability of downloaded music in violation of antitrust law, specifically a violation of the Sherman Act.

Christopher Lovell, legal representation for the plaintiffs, said, "There was uncertainty in the law over the standards for pleading a price-fixing conspiracy. This decision goes a long way toward clarifying what the standard requires in a way that helps people who paid allegedly conspiratorial prices for digital music."

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