|
Actually, they never got in trouble for Usenet.
They got sanctioned by the judge for destroying all of the evidence (wiping all of the hard drives on computers, servers) and sending many of their employees on an all-expenses-paid trip so that they wouldn't be able to testify.
These hard drives + the employees may have had evidence that the company was aware of the infringing activity taking place and chose to do nothing. This is a situation where the DMCA safe harbor provision will not protect you.
The RIAA asked the judge to terminate the case, and rule in their favor. But the judge decided not to grant that request. Instead, he said that Usenet wouldn't be allowed to assert a specific defense (that they were protected by the DMCA safe harbor provision), because they destroyed the evidence that could potentially been used to refute that defense.
|