Jari Ketola
2 Feb 2004 15:17
One of the most important P2P cases returns to court on Tuesday. The lawyers for both the entertainment industry and the P2P operators Grokster and StreamCast Networks (Morpheus) will be making their case in the Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California.
In April 2003, U.S. district court in Los Angeles ruled that Grokster and StreamCast Networks cannot be held liable for the copyright infringements that are taking place using their software. The entertainment industry disagrees. The plaintiffs, including movie studios, record labels, RIAA, and NMPA hope to convince the appeals court to reverse the earlier ruling.
Both parties will have 30 minutes in which to make their case. Obviously the subsequent ruling will have a huge impact on either the entertainment industry or software developers in general.
"The services are profiting to the tune of millions of dollars from music that is written by songwriters who are not getting a dime from the use of their music on these services," said Carey Ramos, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. "We believe that the (lower court's) conclusion is fundamentally unjust."
On the other hand the ruling tests the Betamax legal doctrine. In 1984 the Supreme Court ruled that Sony was not liable for copyright infringements taking place using their VCRs. The same doctrine applies to CD- and DVD-recordable drives and media, recording software etc. Should the ruling be overturned in the Grokster / Morpheus case it would essentially mean that software developers would have to obtain a permission from each and every copyright owner for software that enable users to exchange data.
"This is not just a case about peer-to-peer," countered Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "It is a case that will determine whether technology companies are allowed to innovate or whether they have to ask permission from copyright owners before they build new products."
The ruling from the appeals court is not expected anytime soon.
Source: Wired