Judge: File-swapping tools are legal !!!!

CNET ^ | 4/25/2004 | John Borland

[ArcLight]

A federal judge in Los Angeles has handed a stunning court victory to file-swapping services Streamcast Networks and Grokster, dismissing much of the record industry and movie studios' lawsuit against the two companies. In an almost complete reversal of previous victories for the record labels and movie studios, federal court Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that Streamcast--parent of the Morpheus software--and Grokster were not liable for copyright infringements that took place using their software. The ruling does not directly affect Kazaa, software distributed by Sharman Networks, which has also been targeted by the entertainment industry.

"Defendants distribute and support software, the users of which can and do choose to employ it for both lawful and unlawful ends," Wilson wrote in his opinion, released Friday. "Grokster and Streamcast are not significantly different from companies that sell home video recorders or copy machines, both of which can be and are used to infringe copyrights."

[Tunehead54]

Can I download the ruling on Kazaa?

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Good'un! (That's a southern LOL) ... ;-)

[ScottinSacto]

Exactly right. I think Jimmy Buffet was one of those that did not, and sold his stuff via the web directly for nearly free. He realized that he makes his real money touring. The RIAA and the record lables can pimp their one hit wonder boy/girl bands, but most folks can now get the one "good" song instead of the worthless $19 CD.

[Tunehead54]

Try WinMX.com. No spyware, small (854K), works.

[ScottinSacto]

Guns are legal, murder is not.

Except out here in Cali...you can get away with murder.....as long as you you don't use one of those hideously evil "assault weapons" outfitted with "ungodly high capacity" magazines. And, by god, if you have a bayonet lug you get sent straight to the gas chamber.

[George W. Bush]

It has always been part of the human experience, but only as long as there has been someone to feed the artists. You have a very naive view of the economics involved.

Great art, great music, even great mathematics are not done for money. They're done by the love of the creator for the ideas, the sounds, the colors, the composition.

Real artists must create. It is integral to their being. They'll do it as a hobby if they aren't paid. But the really good ones almost always do make a living out of it.

A lot of great art and music has been produced by persons who hadn't gone professional yet. Heck, Einstein was working as a Swiss postal clerk when he published the theory of relativity. And never did anything truly significant again. Mendelsohn created the stupendous achievement of Midsummers Night Dream when he was something like 19. Never did anything nearly as remarkable again. The examples are almost innumerable.

Your argument for fatcat recording companies reminds me of how the liberals argue for the National Endowment for the Arts. As though art or music would die if people weren't compelled in some sneaky way to support them. I think this is a very limited view of music and art, very 20^th century, as though we still live in a world where the big recording company finds an aspiring young artist, publishes their work, DJs play their work because they like them and then people buy the published works. It's all just a shell game now. And look at the cultural heritage it has given us. What a stifling musical poverty we are suffering through with rap. And we always thought disco and punk were the bottom of the barrel.

At this point, anything that diversifies the music market would be a blessing.

[George W. Bush]

...they would really like to get out and see young performers instead of the decrepit older acts (like Great White) trolling the local music clubs.

Speaking of which, isn't it about time someone took the Stones and some of these other geriatric rockers out behind the barn and put them out of their misery if they won't shut the hell up?

[Skooz]

Good one. At least The Beatles and Pink Floyd had the good sense to let acrimony destroy their bands. You'd think some of these old geezers would take the hint.

[Old Professer]

Barbara Streisand!!!!!

We're not talking about wholesale piracy here -- this has to do with sharing already purchased merchandise; as the judge said, no real difference between this and an ordinary video recorders or copy machines.

Move your bloody ox off to the side of the road.

[SamAdams76]

Incredibly wrong about what? I know that many old classic albums still sell and there was an article in this weeks Billboard saying just that. However, the numbers are huge only when taking into account the cumulative sales of many thousands of catalog albums. Fact is, the Rolling Stones don't sell enough copies of Beggar's Banquet to pay the bills. That's why they go out on tour.

BTW, I believe that the sales of catalog albums will multiply by a factor of 10 if the recording companies only charged $5 or less for them. At that pricepoint, it wouldn't even be worth the time and trouble to put together an album from MP3s downloaded off the web.

[Smedley]

Why aren't any of the big guy's catching on? I can't AFFORD $18 for every time I like ONE song and want the CD.

Some form of automatic charge would be fine with me. Personally, I just buy CDs. Easier for me, but I might suspect that performers would accept a $0.50/song download royalty, and kids would shell out that sort of money. Providers would happily cooperate $0.05/song.

New bands who wanted to get their music out could waive any royalty.

[George W. Bush]

I was thinking about Floyd. And a few other bands that actually could consistently produce an entire album that was worth listening to. Pretty rare these days I would guess. But then, I really don't listen to anything except my own piano these days. Packaged music doesn't appeal except in movies.

[George W. Bush]

Barbara Streisand!!!!!

I don't think that even the sodomite faction is willing to download her stuff any more.

[Smogger]

You law and order types crack me up.

Look. I don't know how to break this to you since so many of you have such and pollyanish view of the the information age, but copying and computers are inseperable. Copying and computers are like peanut butter and jelly. It's always been that way, and it's always GONNA be that way. OK? The techies that created the "information superhighway" created it like that, and with swapping in mind. Believe me, the program the first programmer wrote after getting his hands on the first disk drive was a copy program. Everybody has and investment in copying. Why the hell would you invest in DSL or Cable modem 2 or 3 years ago? Investing in more bandwidth at that price is worthwile for just two applications: online gaming, and swapping. Computers, storage devices, and the Internet have all evolved to the point that they are at now based on the strength of swapping: From the software swapping that's benn going on since the 80's to the more recent swapping of mp3's and now movies gathering data has always been a BIG part of computing.

Everybody has a big investment, software vendors, computer manufacturer's, disc drive makers, Internet companies, and the list goes on.

None of these are the reason that it will continue. As I have stated, "us" techies like it that way it why it will continue, and why eventually media industries will have to evolve if they wish to stay viable.

[eno_]

We can't wast time with what "should be." Capitalizm is all about what IS, and then figuring out how to make money on it.

Hear hear! Pitch a VC with a line like "Once we get a law passed making it illegal to mess with our lame protection measures..." and watch his eyes glaze over in half a second.

I could buy a compressor and have a hell of business selling air if only...

[eno_]

Providers would happily cooperate $0.05/song.

Clearly you have never met ASCAP. They make the Mafia blush.

[greccogirl]

But look what happened with Napster. The music industry's sales actually WENT UP due to Napster. It was quoted and shown in many places. I don't think this will have the effect you believe it will.

[greccogirl]

There are many things I could get for free on the 'net but I still buy CD's.

[Rodney King]

Soon, there will be no money to be made in music.

Most bands make most of their money from live performances.

[society-by-contract]

http://www.libertariannation.org/a/f31l1.html