More Grokster Linkage


The Importance of the Law and IT: MGM v. Grokster: “Beyond just understanding what the court did and didn’t do, Ernie [Miller] along with Denise Howell and Charles (C.E.) Petit explore the decision that says Grokster could be found guilty of an “act of inducement” by encouraging (or not discouraging) its users to share infringing files.”
Siva Vaidhyanathan, Salon.com: Supreme Court’s unsound decision: “Note to technology developers who want to market products that will help people share copyrighted files: Whatever you do, don’t end your brand name with ‘-ster’!”
John Palfrey: The Entrepreneur in a Post-Grokster World: “The entertainment industry and big technology companies, often at one another’s throats in Washington, should be able to get along. In a digital age, after all, they need one another if they are both to thrive. They both got something to cheer about in the Grokster ruling handed down earlier today.”
David Post: Grokster Decision, Second Thoughts: “The unanimous Supreme Court decision holding Grokster & StreamCast liable as contributory copyright infringers for distributing peer-to-peer file-sharing software turns out, on close examination, to be not nearly the victory for the entertainment industry it might have seemed at first glance. [This, interestingly, repeats a pattern in these cases – Sony v. Universal Studios (the Betamax case) was not (nearly) as big a loss for Hollywood as it appeared, nor, as I have argued elsewhere, was the Napster case as big a win).”
Nathan Newman: Grokster and Ten Commandments Case the Same: “Essentially, politicians can promote a religion and Silicon Valley can promote technology that can illegally share copyrighted work AS LONG as they don’t SAY that’s what they are doing. Do it quietly, surround the potentially illegal activity with non-religious symbols or non-infringing uses and, voila, you’re legally scot-free.”

Andrew Raff @andrewraff