One of the biggest questions facing both defendants and the RIAA in the record labels' legal campaign against P2P users is whether making a file available for download over a P2P network equates to distribution as defined under the Copyright Act. In a long-awaited ruling, a federal judge essentially validated the RIAA's position that having songs available in a KaZaA shared folder violates the distribution right under the Copyright Act.

The ruling came in response to Denise Barker's motion to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit brought against her in 2005. In denying the motion to dismiss, Judge Kenneth M. Karas sided with the RIAA's contention that merely offering a song for distribution is sufficient to infringe on the record labels' distribution right. "Having a file in a shared folder is enough to violate the law," EFF staff attorney Fred von Lohmann told Ars. (The EFF had filed an amicus curiae brief in the case.)

What's significant about the decision in Elektra v. Barker is that it is one of only two or three cases where the judge has heard arguments, been fully briefed, and asked to rule on this particular issue. There have been a handful of other rulings on the issue, but Judge Karas' ruling "represents the most extensive and serious treatment" of the issue, according to von Lohmann.

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