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March 03, 2005
Grokster Fans Share Their Filing
In briefs filed with the Supreme Court two days ago, consumer groups asked the court to uphold the Ninth Circuit and rule that Grokster Ltd.'s and StreamCast Networks Inc.'s digital file-sharing technologies do not violate copyright law.
The court's answer could help determine the future courses of multi-billion dollar TV, movie and music businesses.
Quoting Broadcast and Cable:
"As did the ninth circuit, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Free Press and Public Knowledge, argue that the 1984 Sony Betamax case protects Grokster, StreamCast and others from secondary copyright liability (essentially liability as accomplices to illegal file sharing) because their peer-to-peer (computer-to-computer) file-sharing software also has legal uses.
They argue that to punish the technology rather than the abusers of it, as they say studios want to do, flies in the face of established fair-use protections.
The major studios and record companies counter that they want the companies punished and that not to make them liable for the illegal sharing that they directly profit from and constitutes the majority of their business flies in the face of established secondary copyright liability.
The Betamax case , which established home videotaping rights, should not immunize companies that are profiting from the illegally traded files, the studios argue. Betamax, they say, was about balancing effective copyright protection with "the rights of others freely to engage in substantially unrelated areas of commerce."
The new technologies tip the balance far to the side of content piracy, they charge."
Rather than a single library copy, digital file-sharing could mean that nobody ever had to buy a DVD or CD again, the content providers argue, denying billions of dollars to copyright holders and customers to online content businesses such as Apple's iTunes and MovieLink.
The Supreme Court will hear the case March 29.
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