A U.S. federal district judge has allowed a major lawsuit brought by the recording industry against XM Satellite Radio to proceed. Judge Deborah A. Batts refused to dismiss the case, ruling that the
music companies' claims merit a hearing. The lawsuit brought by the Recording Industry Association of America seeks damages from XM for songs downloaded by subscribers using the Pioneer Inno, a
combination XM radio and MP3 player that lets users record songs and play them later. RIAA says the device violates copyright protections. XM maintains it's protected from lawsuits by the Audio Home
Recording Act passed in 1992; XM's lawyers argued that the player is no different from combination radio-cassette players that were widely used to record songs from radio airplay. -- Erik Sass
