In Re Aimster Copyright Litigation

In re Aimster Copyright Litigation, 334 F.3d 643 (7th Cir. 2003), was a case in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit addressed copyright infringement claims brought against Aimster, concluding that a preliminary injunction against the file-sharing service was appropriate, because the copyright owners were likely to prevail on their claims of contributory infringement and the fact that the services was capable of having non-infringing user was not enough reason to reverse the district court's decision. The appellate Court also noted that defendant could have limited the quantity of the infringements if he had eliminated an encryption system feature and if it had monitored the use of its systems. This made Defendant not to fall within the safe harbour of 17 U.S.C.S. § 512(i). and could not be used as an excuse to not know about the infringement. In addition, the Court analyzed that Plaintiff's harm was irreparable and outweighed any harm to the Defendant created by the injunction.