Big Music's bad day

News.com has the most comprehensive coverage I've seen on the RIAA's big setback in court Friday. A federal appeals court ruled that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act does not give the music industry group the power to subpoena ISPs for the identities of subscribers who are suspected of illegal file trading.

It's still illegal to download copyrighted songs -- unless, of course, you're in Canada -- but it's now harder for the RIAA to finger who's doing it.

The three-judge panel's reasoning: the DCMA was passed before the advent of file-sharing networks and therefore does not apply to them. (You can read their entire opinion in this 55K PDF.) Although the music industry could lobby Congress to revise copyright law and give it the extraordinary subpoena powers it wants but for now, a major piece of the RIAA's legal strategy looks like toast for the moment.

News.com's John Borland points out that copyright-holders' battle to stamp out illegal file trading holds "broad implications for individual privacy, due process and technology policy," and the issues deserve a wider debate.