News
[PSUs]| Tuesday 9th November 2004 |
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) had claimed that P2P software from StreamCast and Grokster violated copyright law by facilitating illegal downloading of copyrighted material. In August of this year three judges in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled unanimously that P2P software has legitimate uses and its authors cannot be held responsible for the way in which it is used.
The MPAA and RIAA are now taking their case to the Supreme Court. Both Grokster and StreamCast have said they will fight the appeal and will be supported in court by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
'The introduction of new technology is always disruptive to old markets, and particularly to those copyright owners whose works are sold through well-established distribution mechanisms.' said Michael Weiss, CEO of StreamCast. 'Thus it is prudent for courts to exercise caution before restructuring liability theories for the purpose of addressing specific market abuses'.
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