Grokster

Grokster Ltd. is a privately-owned software company based in Nevis, West Indies whose viability is unclear following a United States Supreme Court ruling against its mainstay product, a peer-to-peer file sharing program for computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system. The product is similar in look and feel to Kazaa which is marketed by Sharman Networks. Contents 1 The technology 2 A summary of the argument 3 Supreme Court decision leads to shutdown 4 The history of the case in the U.S. courts 5 See also 6 External links The technology There are three "major" networks for file sharing, EDonkey, FastTrack and Gnutella. KaZaA and Grokster are based on the FastTrack P2P file-sharing system, and share a common network.The Gnutella network is accessed through Bearshare, Gnucleus, LimeWire, Morpheus, Phex, Shareaza, and other similar programs. It has been estimated that 90% of files shared on Grokster are downloaded illegally. [1] But empirical evidence suggests that such downloads have not substantially affected the retail sales of music, videos, and other works protected by copyright and the intellectual property laws.[2] A summary of the argument The key issue in this copyright infringement case is the so-called Sony safe-harbor principle which was set by the Supreme Court twenty-one years ago in Sony v. Universal Studios 464 U.S. 417 (1984). This states that, "…the sale of copying equipment, like the sale of other articles of commerce, does not constitute contributory infringement if the product is widely used for legitimate, unobjectionable purposes. Indeed, it need merely be capable of substantial non-infringing uses." (Sony 464 U.S. at 442). Grokster argues that proof of reasonable, actual or potential, non-infringing use, is sufficient to fulfil the ""substantiality"" requirement. The RIAA and MPAA argue that Sony safe-harbor requires proof that the non-infringing use is the primary one; an incidental non-infringing use is not enough. Among the amicus curiae briefs: The U.S. government proposed that a manufacturer of technological device will be protected by Sony safe-harbor only if the non-infringing uses are commercially significant compared to the infringing uses. A group of law and economic professors (among them Professors Kenneth J. Arrow, and William M. Landes) argue that the test whether the non-infringing use is substantial, requires an examination of all the existing legal mechanisms for accomplishing the same task. The example given is the distribution of the Bible. This is lawfully available through P2P file sharing software and is therefore a non-infringing use. But many religious websites offer a free copy. Thus, since downloading the Bible through P2P file sharing software is an addition to the list of well-established legitimate methods for obtaining a free Bible, the benefits of this addition are not substantial and the overall use of P2P software should not be considered a non-infringing use. The cost-benefit analysis, first introduced by Judge Posner from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in the Aimster case, holds that a manufacturer of technological device will enjoy the Sony safe-harbor only if "...it would have been disproportionately costly for him to eliminate or at least reduce substantially the infringing uses." The Creative Commons organization presented a strong argument for non-infringing use in the form of the Creative Commons licence, despite the fact that the architecture of the software did not allow for the licence to be transferred. Supreme Court decision leads to shutdown Grokster closed its site on November 7, 2005. A note on its home page cited a United States Supreme Court ruling that copying copyrighted material using "unauthorized peer-to-peer services is illegal" and while legal download services exist, "this service is not one of them." The company said it hoped to establish a "legal" service soon, referencing a new URL: www.grokster3g.com. The history of the case in the U.S. courts In April 2003, Los Angeles federal court judge, Stephen Wilson, ruled in favour of Grokster and Streamcast (providers of Morpheus P2P software) against the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Industry and held that their file sharing software was not illegal. On 20 August 2003, the decision was appealed by the RIAA and the MPAA. On 17 August 2004, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a partial ruling supporting Grokster, holding This appeal presents the question of whether distributors of peer-to-peer file-sharing computer networking software may be held contributorily or vicariously liable for copyright infringements by users. Under the circumstances presented by this case, we conclude that the defendants are not liable for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement and affirm the district court's partial grant of summary judgment. In December 2004, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. On 25 March 2005, billionaire and former Broadcast.com owner Mark Cuban announced he would finance Grokster's fight in the Supreme Court. Oral arguments were held for MGM v. Grokster on 29 March, 2005, and in June 2005, the Court unanimously held that Grokster could indeed be sued for infringement for their activities prior to the date of this judgement. But the future impact of the case may only be to require software companies to more carefully advertise their packages to discourage illegal copying. See also MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. External links Grokster's homepage MGM v. Grokster case documents The Legality of File Sharing - MGM vs Grokster MGM v. Grokster Ninth Circuit oral argument transcript MGM v. Grokster: Day 1 - March 30, 2005 MP3 Newswire recap of first day of trial Technical Background of Grokster Decision - Philip Larson's Blog Legal Background of Grokster Decision - Philip Larson's Blog Summary of Supreme Court Decision - Philip Larson's Blog Advanced Peer-Based Technology Business Models. Ghosemajumder, Shuman. MIT Sloan School of Management, 2002. Music Downloads: Pirates- or Customers?. Silverthorne, Sean. Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, 2004.hu:Grokster Search Term: "Grokster" Categories: File sharing programs | Software companies

Linden Calls In FBI to Probe 'Second Life' Gambling