Windows as a file-sharing and copyright infringing technology

I have a question - if RIAA and MPAA are content to pursue not just copyright infringers, but also technologies that support copyright infringement, then why haven't they attempted to sue Microsoft and indeed any manufacturer of a general purpose computing device or software that can be attached to the Internet?

To see why think about how first Napstar and now Kazaa are being ruthlessly pursued under the claims that they actively encouraged copyright infringement. So how about this scenario. I sell a software product, we'll call it Windows XP for sake of argument, and a customer of mine installs it on their home PC and then fills their hard-drive with MP3s ripped from their CD collection. Everything is okay so far - that's still quite legal by the fair use rules.

Well then they connect that PC to the Internet and pretty soon some external entity has found its way onto their machine and is copying off all their MP3 files to a remote machine. Perhaps the external agent installed some software on the machine and has made it easy for other people to do the same, or maybe the exploit that caused the breach is well known and unfixed so its easy for other people to do it.

Now I ask you this - can the owner of that PC be sued for copyright infringement just exactly as if they had installed a file sharing program on their PC? Even if they didn't deliberately disable the Windows firewall (or not upgrade to SP2) perhaps they just installed some software that had spyware in it that did it for them. Or perhaps there was just another Windows exploit that made the whole thing possible? So if it wasn't the users deliberate action to causes the copyright infringement, then can the provider of the operating system that facilitated this be held to blame?

I think these are all important questions...

Now, for some mischief - what if someone developed file-sharing software that is designed to make the users machine look like a virus, worm or spyware compromised PC such that its filesystem and hence payload of copyrighted material (MP3s, movies, etc) were openly accessible to the outside world? How could the RIAA or MPAA determine if that user was deliberately running the file-sharing software or was just another pour happless PC user who has just become the latest victim of yet another Windows software exploit? Indeed, if the file-sharing were designed to be viral in the first place then anyone sued could just deny all knowledge of its deliberate installation.

Such a scenario means, I think, its only a matter of time before the RIAA and others will insist it is necesary to make attaching unprotected computing devices to the Internet a criminal offence. By all accounts, recent efforts to stengthen copyright laws like the DMCA are attempting to do just that.