The United States Supreme Court announced that it would hear a case on whether P2P companies are responsible for the piracy of their users. The court will hear an appeal to a lower court ruling that concluded that Grokster and StreamCast were not responsible for the activities of their users. The ruling was a blow to music companies and movie studios, both determined to stem piracy online.
The ruling in the previous trial had rested on ruling in a case brought against the movie industry twenty years ago. The movie industry wanted to ban VCR's because they would allow film piracy. They lost the case, with courts ruling that VCR's had substantial other users than piracy. Michael Elkin, a copyright litigator said that "What's at stake is basically the future of a close to $500 billion copyright industry, specifically the music recording, motion picture and video industries which have been completely hammered with the advent of the Internet."
Representatives from the Electronic Frontier Foundation reject this; "The copyright law principles set out in the Sony Betamax case have served innovators, copyright industries, and the public well for 20 years," said Fred von Lohmann, IP lawyer at EFF. "We at EFF look forward to the Supreme Court reaffirming the applicability of Betamax in the 21st century." The Supreme court will hear the case in March of 2005.
View: EFF Commentary | MGM vs Grokster Documents
View: Kazaa | Grokster | MGM
The ruling in the previous trial had rested on ruling in a case brought against the movie industry twenty years ago. The movie industry wanted to ban VCR's because they would allow film piracy. They lost the case, with courts ruling that VCR's had substantial other users than piracy. Michael Elkin, a copyright litigator said that "What's at stake is basically the future of a close to $500 billion copyright industry, specifically the music recording, motion picture and video industries which have been completely hammered with the advent of the Internet."
Representatives from the Electronic Frontier Foundation reject this; "The copyright law principles set out in the Sony Betamax case have served innovators, copyright industries, and the public well for 20 years," said Fred von Lohmann, IP lawyer at EFF. "We at EFF look forward to the Supreme Court reaffirming the applicability of Betamax in the 21st century." The Supreme court will hear the case in March of 2005.
View: EFF Commentary | MGM vs Grokster Documents View: Kazaa | Grokster | MGM
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Whatever, I live in Canada, copyright laws don't apply to me
When they go after Bit Torrent, they will be going after end users. I don't think they can bring that kind of technology down (without taking out the entire internet and starting over from scratch).
I'm sure a lot of people here secretly grin to themselves when they see posts about the legal possibilities of p2p by users who are probably, while they're typing those posts, downloading four or five mp3s/movies/games.
Much like the music industry constantly claims p2p is nothing but damage to artists, while studies have shown that many artists have benefited because of p2p, p2p users constantly shout the legal uses of p2p, while statistics show that most users are pirating. And neither side of this battle is willing to admit that they're both liars and hypocrits.
If the industry can find a way to find a law or support the passing of a law that can punish these networks based on what is primarily enabled by them, or if they can find evidence of the intent behind creating those networks (and you're all deluding yourselves if you think all p2p networks were created with noble intent), they'll push and push and push until they win, or until they're completely annihilated from the effort.
People would rather buy DVD's, Console games and Mobile phone's (and credit for them)
I wish they'd just accept there's more competition in the world today.
Now there is a Blockbuster on ever other corner. Give the technology time to mature before you legislate it out of existence.
(OOPS this was supposed to be a reply)
The CD/DVD Burner, the device can be used to make backups of your data, made home videos to send to people, put your digital pictures on, transferr information etc, but it can also be used to burn illegal information.
The DV cameras, they can be used to create movies of your holidays and/or special events, but they can also be used to do illegal activities.
Keyboards can also be used to perform illegal activities. By retyping something and claiming it as your own, you are breeching copyright.
The Internet which holds a vast amount of information, can be used for research, entertainment etc. but it can also be used as the swapping grounds for illegal content.
The point is all devices have their intented uses and they also have the ability to perform other unattended uses. Who is to blame for the actions taken by their users/customers? If I photocopy a book and resell it, is Xerox to be taken to court because their photocopier allowed me to do it? If I copy a CD, does Lite-On get a phone call because i used their hardware to do it?
This case is about as stupid as sueing all the other companies that produce devices such as those I've already specified. It's not going to do any good and people will just flock to the next popular device.
(please reply to: krono6@gmail.com)
p.s its not a good idea putting your email on a public forum that any tom dick or harry can spam not matter what size your inbox can hold
"As to the specifics of this dubious disclaimer, President Clinton signed no "Internet Privacy Act" in 1995, and existing federal privacy protections applicable to the world of cyberspace generally govern the collection and dissemination of personal information (such as medical records) via the Internet. Federal privacy laws don't serve to provide those who break laws in the on-line world with protection from prosecution should their illegal cyber-activities be uncovered by law enforcement officials visiting their web sites."
So, unless you're talking about some other imaginary law you might want to curb your ignorance.
small reason of legit reasons to own one.....
stagering majority of reasons to ban them... yet they wont
Wow, and their still around. I think Mr. Elkin is completely hammered.
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