A German court has ruled that the parents of a 13-year-old boy weren't liable for his illegal file sharing.
The ruling Thursday by Germany's Federal Court in Karlsruhe is a blow to the efforts of music and film companies trying to clamp down on unauthorized distribution of their material.
The unnamed parents had appealed a lower court's ruling ordering them to pay almost €5,400 ($6,900) in damages and legal costs to music companies on their son's behalf for sharing 1,147 songs online.
But the Karlsruhe court said the parents acted appropriately by telling their son that sharing copyrighted material was illegal.
It said they weren't required to monitor the boy's online habits regularly or install special software to prevent illegal file sharing unless they suspected he was breaking the law.
