The Ninth Circus Court of Appeals is telling the RIAA and MPAA to leave P2P software alone.

"Under the circumstances presented by this case, we conclude that the defendants are not liable for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement and affirm the district court's partial grant of summary judgment," the Ninth Circuit wrote in its decision (PDF). "In this case, the Software Distributors have not only shown that their products are capable of substantial noninfringing uses, but that the uses have commercial viability."

Basically they are saying that software makers should not be held liable for the criminal misuse of their products. Especially since those products have been shown to have a legitimate use. (I wonder if the 9th would rule that way about firearms?)

What this means for the RIAA is that they need to continue suing their customers for copyright infringement on an individual basis.