US Supreme Court Reverses Grokster P2P Ruling

In a nine-judge unanimous ruling, the US Supreme Court has reversed the decision of the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc v Grokster (see an earlier issue of e-tips®, Vol 3 No 6, September 1, 2004). While the Court has opened the door to an eventual finding of liability against the particular defendants – for "actively inducing" copyright infringement by file sharers – the Court also maintained the principles of the so-called Sony Betamax doctrine to the effect that mere knowledge by a technology innovator that its technology is being used for illegal purposes does not vicariously implicate the innovator in infringement. The challenge for the record companies now will be to apply the newly articulated principles of the Grokster case to the vast number of file sharing transactions carried out annually. As The New York Times put it the day following the ruling, "Nine US Supreme Court justices down, tens of millions of file-swapping consumers to go". The full text of the US Supreme Court decision can be found at: http://makeashorterlink.com/?E2FF2506B For three views in The New York Times on the decision the following day, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/business/28media.html http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/technology/28peer.html http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/technology/28grokster.html Summary by: The Editor