The Recording Industry Ass. of America has dropped a case against Paul Wilke who was accused of sharing music files over a peer-to-peer network.

Wilkes denied the charges and said he'd never used a file sharing application. He said The Recording Industry Ass. of America did not have sufficient evidence and that he was not the person named in their complaint.

Wilkes said he did not have any of the songs he was accused of stealing and those that were on his hard drive had been taken legally from CDs he owns, not from file sharing networks. In response, the RIAA asked to search his hard drive.

This was an unusual move for the organisation, which usually uses a list of songs and an IP address, which it connects to an individual, as the basis for its cases.

The RIAA has filed dozens of cases against individuals it accuses of file sharing and all have settled out of court.

There's more on the RecordingIndustryvsthepeople blog. ®

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