A second U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday that the recording industry can't force Internet providers to identify music downloaders under a disputed copyright law.
The decision doesn't significantly affect the industry's continuing campaign to sue Internet users.
The 2-1 ruling by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Louis affirms another appeals court's decision in Washington in December 2003. Both courts ruled against efforts by the Recording Industry Association of America, the trade organization for the largest labels, to compel Internet providers to identify customers accused of illegally distributing songs over the Internet.
In the Missouri case, judges said that Charter Communications Inc., one of the nation's largest Internet providers, wasn't responsible for 93 of its customers allegedly trading 100,000 copyrighted music files across the Internet and shouldn't have been compelled to identify them under the 1988 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The appeals court said Charter's role was "confined to acting as a conduit in the transfer of files through its network."
