I don't think the sky is falling on this one (Score 1)

In Judge Branson's judgment he states: "When an internet user clicked on a particular hyperlink, the music file in question was transmitted directly to his or her computer from a remote server." And there's the rub. To illustrate, even if Sony music makes available free MP3's (that it has copyright permission to) to be downloaded from its website as a traffic and brand building exercise this does not confer permission to others to bypass Sony's website by linking to the mp3's directly i.e. acting as a direct distribution mechanism.

I imagine if instead the defendant had simply linked to the copyright holder's websites where the MP3 could therein be downloaded there wouldn't have been any case to answer.

For me, the primary aspects of this case had lose/lose written all over it.

IANAL.