http://www.mp3board.com, which provided Internet users with resources to enable them to locate MP3
files from publicly available Web sites. No music files were located on the MP3Board web site.
Instead, the web site featured an automated search engine that searched for, aggregated and
organized links to media files on the Web, and provided a tutorial offering users instruction on
how to locate and download such files. The site also featured a message board on which users
could post questions or song requests. In response to users’ posts, MP3Board personnel
personally searched for links to songs and posted the links on the message board, solicited other
users to provide the requested works, and obtained and posted passwords to enable users to
access certain music files.^3076
The RIAA sent a number of infringement demand letters relating to MP3Board’s
activities before filing suit. On Oct. 27, 1999, and again on Apr. 18, 2000, the RIAA sent letters
to MP3Board’s ISP, identifying artists whose works were being infringed – but no specific song
titles – and demanding that the ISP remove or disable access to the MP3Board site or
MP3Board’s links to infringing works. In response to the second letter, MP3Board’s ISP
disabled Internet access to the MP3Board web site, but service was restored after MP3Board
supplied a counter notification to the ISP asserting that it had removed the infringing material
identified in the RIAA’s notice. On May 25, 2000, the RIAA wrote directly to MP3Board and
demanded that MP3Board remove all infringing links, this time naming 21 artists and 22 song
titles which were representative of the titles being infringed. The letter also attached printouts of
screen shots of MP3Board’s web site on which the RIAA identified 662 links which the RIAA
believed to lead to infringing material. MP3Board did not dismantle access to any of the
identified links in response. Shortly thereafter, the RIAA filed suit and sought summary
judgment on its claims of contributory and vicarious copyright infringement.^3077
The court denied the RIAA’s motion for summary judgment, finding that numerous
issues of material fact remained to be resolved. First, although the structure of the MP3Board
site and scale of the operation gave rise to a strong inference that users downloaded files
containing copyrighted music, the court found that the record companies had not submitted any
direct of evidence of infringement to which MP3Board could contribute or be vicariously liable,
such as user logs or other technical data showing the downloading of copyrighted and
unauthorized files.^3078 The court ruled that, to show the unlawful distribution of a copyrighted
work, the plaintiffs needed to show that an unlawful copy was disseminated to the public.^3079
This ruling is in contrast to the Frena, Chuckleberry, Webbworld, and Marobie-FL cases,
discussed in Section II.D.1 above, which held that the mere making available of unauthorized
works for download by members of the public constituted infringement of the distribution right.
With respect to contributory liability, the court found material issues of fact both
concerning the knowledge and the material contribution prongs. With respect to the material
(^3076) Arista Records, Inc. v. MP3Board, Inc., 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16165 at 5-6 (S.D.N.Y. 2002).
(^3077) Id. at 7-9.
(^3078) Id. at 11-12.
(^3079) Id. at 13-14.