Another file-sharing software maker has been found guilty of causing copyright infringement. A US judge has said the Morpheus software produced by StreamCast breaks the law.
The ruling is another victory for the entertainment industry, which has had a string of recent victories and concessions. Just weeks ago Kazaa settled with the music industry for $100m.
MetaMachine was ordered to pay $30m to settle a copyright suit earlier this month over its eDonkey and Overnet file sharing software. Napster shut down and only the brand survived, now fronting an authorised download site and Grokster has been shut down by courts.
In 2003 Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that StreamCast could not be held responsible for the actions of its software's users, a decision that was backed by the appeals courts. Last year, though, the Supreme Court in the US ruled that file sharing software companies were liable for the software's use because they encouraged or induced users to commit copyright theft.
The Supreme Court then sent the case back to Delaware and to Wilson, who has delivered his revised judgment.
"In the record before the court, evidence of StreamCast's unlawful intent is overwhelming," he wrote this time around in his judgment. Granting a motion for summary judgment against StreamCast, he said there was evidence of "massive infringement" on the StreamCast network.
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The ruling is another victory for the entertainment industry, which has had a string of recent victories and concessions. Just weeks ago Kazaa settled with the music industry for $100m.
MetaMachine was ordered to pay $30m to settle a copyright suit earlier this month over its eDonkey and Overnet file sharing software. Napster shut down and only the brand survived, now fronting an authorised download site and Grokster has been shut down by courts.
In 2003 Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that StreamCast could not be held responsible for the actions of its software's users, a decision that was backed by the appeals courts. Last year, though, the Supreme Court in the US ruled that file sharing software companies were liable for the software's use because they encouraged or induced users to commit copyright theft.
The Supreme Court then sent the case back to Delaware and to Wilson, who has delivered his revised judgment.
"In the record before the court, evidence of StreamCast's unlawful intent is overwhelming," he wrote this time around in his judgment. Granting a motion for summary judgment against StreamCast, he said there was evidence of "massive infringement" on the StreamCast network.

The majority of the free ride on the internet candy store is over because too many people got on the bus. Things were just different back in the old days when they were more complicated to get the stuff; now days they just are holding a big giant target on their head with a loud speaker asking to get whacked.
It is not a romantic internet geek story as much as the geeks tend to make out of it; sometimes you have to come out of your house and have a little social interaction with the laws outside of your 16 inch screen. Hey I don't like the the **AA association more than anybody else but I also hate how the people who do this activity just blatently spit right in their face but cry like a baby running home when they have to face reality.
All this does is shutdown these P2P programs and companies that produce them, in the US. They will just pop up in other countries are not so liberal and allow P2P to grow.
Don't blame the judge! The judge made a ruling, which at the time was just and fair and had no higher court ruling (that I know of) to tell him otherwise. The Supreme Court thought otherwise over the whole P2P issue and made their ruling. This judge had NO choice in the matter and had to comply with the Supreme Court's ruling.
If ANYONE is to blame, blame our stupid Supreme Court. Don't take it out on the judge who had no further power.
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
Oh wait. It's the users doing most of the crime and none of the time.
Hhhhmmmmmm........
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
Oh wait. It's the users doing most of the crime and none of the time.
Hhhhmmmmmm........
I disagree. In fact, I believe that if anything the destruction of much of this generation of P2P programs will incite the users and coders of these programs to write new and better P2P programs.
I forget who said it--I believe it was a famous scientist, it's in the Asimov essay "Alas, All Human"--but he said that the only real way to get new ideas out and challenge the old ways is for all the current scientists to die. I think it's exactly the same for P2P; only when the old heads of the **AAs and other steamrolling organizations die off will P2P be given a chance and not hunted mercilously and relentlessly.
But....alas, that may be a very long time from now.
You really think the RIAA gives a fuc king shi t about software piracy?
No.
They made 100m off Kazaa, 30m on some other one and so on. LOTS of money to be made this way.
i never saw things like "with our software you can download movies and games for free!" on their websites
just 'share videos and files with your friends' or something..
basically to sum it up this is pretty much the best way to encode a mp3 song while retaining high quality at a decent bit rate... i would say average bit rate generally speaking is around 192... sometimes more sometimes less depending on the music it's doing and how complex etc it is.
ill bet reason the average joe dont use EAC with LAME is cause u cant just install EAC and encode... u need to manually download the LAME encoder program and tell EAC where it's located before EAC can tell lame to encode the mp3 files u rip from your original audio cd's.
I mean, to all the judge out there...don't be so stupid, you can control what the people are doing with a manufactured product.
Sav
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