After passing on related cases for years, the Supreme Court has finally decided to hear a Peer-to-Peer (P2P ) case. Perhaps the most important P2P case of all: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster
This is the case where, in April of last year (2003), a Judge in Los Angeles ruled that file sharing software programs were legal, meaning that developers can’t be held liable for copyright infringement that may occur when people use file-sharing programs. Of course, MGM appealed, and lost. And now, they’re appealing again: to the Supreme Court of the United States.
This decision is a big deal partly because the legislators are working on laws that would outlaw P2P applications! Perhaps the Supreme Court will reinforce what we’ve been seeing in the lower courts: just because it’s digital doesn’t make copying in-and-of-itself illegal: maybe it’s the equivalent of a dual-deck VCR, a copy machine, or a double tape deck.
You can read more on the ArsTechnica website which has a very good article on the subject.
Similar Posts:
- None Found