Aimster Files Suit Against Recording Industry Group

Aimster, an Internet file-swapping service that piggybacks on America Online’s and other instant messaging services, said Wednesday that it filed suit against a recording industry trade group it says is trying to shut it down.

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, is asking the federal court for a declaratory judgment that the company is not infringing on copyrights.

“We’re asking the court for a ruling that says it would be wrong to sue us because we’re doing nothing wrong,” said Johnny Deep, president of the Albany, N.Y., company that operates Aimster, AbovePeer Inc.

Like the popular Napster song-swapping service, Aimster enables people to trade files over the Internet. A major difference, however, is that Aimster is designed to let people share files privately with others on their “buddy lists,” rather than searching the entire universe of users.

Deep said the company filed the suit because it had received a “cease-and-desist” letter from the Recording Industry Assn. of America. “The RIAA sent a letter saying that Aimster is identical to Napster and we needed to block [file-sharing] in the same way that Napster does, or they would take additional legal remedies,” Deep said.

The RIAA, which represents the world’s biggest record labels, sued Napster in December 1999, claiming it was a haven for online music piracy.

After an appeals court ruling in February that paved the way for an injunction against Napster, the RIAA sent out legal notices to Internet service providers providing connections for Napster clones, warning them these users violated copyright laws.

Some analysts say Aimster, which has attracted about 4.2 million users, may be better insulated from lawsuits than a service like Napster, because users share files only with designated people.