First an RIAA press release, now a white flag

By Eriq Gardner

We were a little skeptical last month when the RIAA announced that it would be stepping back from its Captain James Norrington approach to taking out the music pirates of the world. Maybe because we hadn't — and still haven't — figured out what the music industry's end-game is in eradicating copyright infringers.

But the RIAA has now done something it hasn't done in the past. Real action. Not a press release. 

RIAA lawyers have filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in Atlantic Recording v. Brennan, a highly publicized case in which a judge gave the first rejection of the music industry's theory that "making available" music on online platforms constituted copyright infringement. 

There are other cases out there where "making available" can be litigated and appealed, but this is certainly a move we wouldn't have expected. Whatever the legal merits of its past legal strategy, the RIAA depended on intimidating defendants into settling quickly. Now a humble RIAA becomes a less intimidating one, which possibly invites more defendants to put up a fight.