An important tangential issue in the file-sharing case Elektra v. Barker has been decided, and it sure looks like a big win for the RIAA.

The issue was whether simply having music available on one’s computer for download is “distribution.” If merely having some files in a KaZaa shared folder is distribution, that makes a whole lot of people vulnerable—and makes it easier  for the record industry, which otherwise would have to find the evidence that files made available were actually transferred to someone else’s computer.

Due to some technical details the court—a federal District Court in New York—is making the labels amend their complaint, but the thrust of the opinion is plain. Here’s a lawyer Ars Technica talked to:

[Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Howard] Von Lohmann called the decision well-reasoned, but unfortunate. “I understand how the court went wrong and the unfortunate result,” he told Ars. “And he admits that his decision is not without disagreement; he understands the contours of the issue. But clearly, he really engaged the subject and read all of the law.”

In Billboard, Susan Butler takes the time to quote the relevant section of the law, which sure makes it sound like this was a pipe dream from the start:

Although copyright law does not define a “distribution,” it does define “publication.”

The law states that publication is “the distribution of copies or phonorecords [i.e., audio copies of sound recordings] of a work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending. The offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of persons for purposes of further distribution, public performance, or public display, constitutes publication.”

It seems pretty plain to me, but I’m no lawyer.

For the record, Hitsville’s position is that file-sharing is wrong, but since a) there’s no way to stop it; b) it comes after decades of much more unsavory industry practices; c) the record companies have been incompetent in their moves to digital distribution; and d) the legal assaults have been extreme and counterproductive, at this point the industry deserves what it gets.