The Supreme Court declined to review a lower court case and therefore agreed with the ruling in the lower court that the downloading of music is not a crime that can be punished under copyright infringement.  To check out the details about the case you should read this article by the AP.  In order for an individual to be liable for copyright infringement they must have broadcast the music publicly.  The Supreme Court agreed that downloading music on a personal computer did not constitute a public performance and thus could not be grounds for copyright infringement.

This ruling will likely cost musicians dearly as ASCAP, the organization who licenses musicians music, will not be able to license out music that is illegally downloaded on PC’s for private use.  Consumers who illegally download music will not have to worry about facing potential charges of copyright infringement in the future.

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