A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc. External link, 239 F.3d 1004 (2001), the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a peer-to-peer file sharing service could indeed be held liable for contributory and vicarious infringement of copyright. This landmark intellectual property External link case put an end to any speculation that such services could facilitate copyright infringement, but still shield themselves from any liability due to the fact that it was the users that chose to share illegal copies of protected works.