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."

[ArcLight]

Holy Moley!

[k2blader]

Whoah.

[yonif]

Can I download the ruling on Kazaa?

[GraniteStateConservative]

The RIAA are a bunch of Democrats anyway.

[The Old Hoosier]

Well, that means you can kiss the recording industry--and rock music--goodbye permanently.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

[js1138]

This will not directly affect users who actually download the files, or who offer copyrighted material to be uploaded.

[tutstar]

ping

[CaptainJustice]

word!

[Principled]

No, it means you can kiss the recordng industry's and rock music's outdated business model good-bye.

Music will always be here.

[The Red Zone]

This is just a district court. The 9th Court of Appeals will get it next (and God [void in pledges of allegiance where prohibited] knows what they'll do with it)

[P.O.E.]

Isn't Verizon fighting a ruling to disclose the identity of downloaders, as well (privacy issue)?

[smith288]

Whatever happened to those "artists" who always say "I do it for the looooove, maaaan".

[Cogadh na Sith]

Rock is dead....

Long live rock!

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

This Chicken-Little scenario was also floated when video-cassettes became popular 20+ years ago.

[mitchbert]

It will be interesting to see the results of any appeal that makes it to the Supremes. The video recorder comparison is drawn from Sony's successful defense against the movie studios in the Betamax case, the victory that legalized home video taping. I work for their electronics arm and remeber telling one of our VP's that our stance on file sharing would ultimately be defeated by our own prior arguments. Very interesting.

[Billy_bob_bob]

Don't worry, they'll just appeal it again and again and again until they get the ruling they want.

As far as rock music going away permanently, that just isn't going to happen. Music existed for centuries before record labels came along, and it will exist for centuries to come, music industry or no music industry.

Look at the basic paradigm. It used to be that just to record a song took tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment to record anything you would want to listen to. Then promotion, distribution, etc. all of which cost big bucks. Nowadays you can put together a very decent home studio for a couple of grand, and you can distribute and promote your music for free on the internet via MP3.com, IUMA and others.

I have an extensive collection of great songs that I've put together over the last few years, all off of the internet. I've paid nothing for any of those songs, and I've stolen nothing because every song I have was given away for free by the artists. Some of them I liked enough to actually purchase albums from them, so they accomplished their goal of making money, and I've accomplished my goal of finding new music.

Who needs a music industry when their idea of "great art" is bands like Linkin Park and Limp Biskit? Is anyone going to be listening to these bands in ten years? Who needs the opinion of some "program director" when I can audition and program artists myself?

[nina0113]

Too bad the recording industry wasted their efforts trying to hold back technology - if they had been the first ones on to the bandwagon, selling the files themselves, they would have seized market share and held it. Now the culture is used to getting songs for free, and it's way too late to put THAT genie back in the bottle.

[The Red Zone]

"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."

Well this is kind of like saying you can't sue gun manufacturers even though some people use them to rob banks. Who woulda thunk it?