The RIAA recently announced that it had won a copyright infringement suit against filesharing site Usenet.com.

"In October 2007 RIAA lawyers chucked a federal lawsuit at Usenet.com, in which it claimed that the Fargo, North Dakota newsgroup service 'enables and encourages' people to swap copyrighted music," writes The Register's Kelly Fiveash. "At the time the RIAA, which represents big name players in the recording industry, accused Usenet.com of infringing copyright far beyond the scope of what peer-to-peer file sharing services offered. Judge Harold Baer of the Southern District of New York court dished out the ruling. He found Usenet.com guilty of 'direct, contributory, and vicarious infringement.'"

Steven M. Marks, executive vice president and general counsel of the RIAA, said at the time, "This decision is another example of courts recognizing the value of copyrighted music and taking action against companies and individuals who are engaging in wide scale infringement. We hope that other bad actors who are engaging in similar activity will take note of this decisive opinion."

"The ruling comes as the RIAA is shifting away from its longtime strategy of targeting individuals suspected of sharing music files online," writes InformationWeek's Antone Gonsalves. "Instead, the organization is going after companies that make such copyright violations possible."

More here from CrunchGear ... and the press release is here.