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Secondary Liability:Aimster

William Fisher

2010. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/ or send a letter to

Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA.

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Aimster Technology

!Like Napster, uses a combination of a centralserver and free, downloaded software

!

The system piggybacks on AOLs InstantMessaging System

!Encryption prevents operators from knowing thecontents of shared files

!

Online tutorials teach uses of the system,emphasizing exchange of copyrighted soundrecordings

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Secondary Liability in Copyright!

Contributory Infringementrequires

" Direct infringement

" Knowledge (actual orconstructive) by the

defendant" Material contribution

!Vicarious Infringementrequires

"

Direct infringement" Financial interest in the

infringement

" Right and ability tosupervise the direct

infringer

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Secondary Liability in Copyright!

Contributory Infringementrequires

" Direct infringement

" Knowledge (actual orconstructive) by the

defendant" Material contribution

!Vicarious Infringementrequires

"

Direct infringement" Financial interest in the

infringement

" Right and ability tosupervise the direct

infringer

!

Aimster: CI because:

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Secondary Liability in Copyright!

Contributory Infringementrequires

" Direct infringement

" Knowledge (actual orconstructive) by the

defendant" Material contribution

!Vicarious Infringementrequires

"

Direct infringement" Financial interest in the

infringement

" Right and ability tosupervise the directinfringer

!

Aimster: CI because:" Ds failed to establish any

legitimate uses of thesystems: COSNU defenseinapplicable

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Secondary Liability in Copyright!

Contributory Infringementrequires

" Direct infringement

" Knowledge (actual orconstructive) by the

defendant" Material contribution

!Vicarious Infringementrequires

"

Direct infringement" Financial interest in the

infringement

" Right and ability tosupervise the directinfringer

!

Aimster: CI because:" Ds failed to establish any

legitimate uses of thesystems: COSNU defenseinapplicable

" Willful blindnessconstitutes knowledge

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Secondary Liability in Copyright!

Contributory Infringementrequires

" Direct infringement

" Knowledge (actual orconstructive) by the

defendant" Material contribution

!Vicarious Infringementrequires

" Direct infringement

" Financial interest in theinfringement

" Right and ability tosupervise the directinfringer

!

Aimster: CI because:" Ds failed to establish any

legitimate uses of thesystems: COSNU defenseinapplicable

" Willful blindnessconstitutes knowledge

" Ds actively encouragedinfringement

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Secondary Liability in Copyright!

Contributory Infringementrequires

" Direct infringement

" Knowledge (actual orconstructive) by the

defendant" Material contribution

!Vicarious Infringementrequires

" Direct infringement

" Financial interest in theinfringement

" Right and ability tosupervise the directinfringer

!

Aimster: CI because:" Ds failed to establish any

legitimate uses of thesystems: COSNU defenseinapplicable

" Willful blindnessconstitutes knowledge

" Ds actively encouragedinfringement

!Aimster: VI uncertainbecause:

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Secondary Liability in Copyright!

Contributory Infringementrequires

" Direct infringement

" Knowledge (actual orconstructive) by the

defendant" Material contribution

!Vicarious Infringementrequires

" Direct infringement

" Financial interest in theinfringement

" Right and ability tosupervise the directinfringer

!

Aimster: CI because:" Ds failed to establish any

legitimate uses of thesystems: COSNU defenseinapplicable

" Willful blindnessconstitutes knowledge

" Ds actively encouragedinfringement

!Aimster: VI uncertainbecause:

" Willful blindness maynot be sufficient to treat Dsas a principal

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Aimsterdeviates from Sony

!To trigger the COSNU defense, a defendant must

demonstrate that its product has substantial

noninfringing uses, not merely that it is capable ofsubstantial noninfringing uses

!Even if the defendant makes such a showing, if the

infringing uses are substantial, the defendant must

also show that it would have beendisproportionately costly to design its product so

as to eliminate or reduce the infringing uses