--- Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 11:43:40 -0700 (PDT) From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall <jhallat_private> To: Declan McCullagh <declanat_private> Subject: summary judgemnet order (grokster, etc.) http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/030425_order_on_motions.php --- From: "Hiawatha Bray" <wathaat_private> To: <politechat_private> Subject: Judge: File swapping tools are legal Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 15:05:23 -0400 http://news.com.com/2100-1027-998363.html?tag=fd_top 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." <snip> Hiawatha Bray Boston Globe ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Apr 25 2003 - 12:58:35 PDT