The eyes of the whole web world will be focused on a landmark case that is set to start Tuesday next. The setting is the U.S. Supreme Court and the date March 29. The case involves the entertainment industry and peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing technology with the US government playing a referee’s role.
The MGM vs. Grokster case seeks answers on whether manufacturers of file-sharing software are liable to be sued when people use their products to illegally download music that is protected by copyrights.
The case wound its way to the Supreme Court after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, Calif, ruled in favor of Grokster and StreamCast Networks. Donald B. Verrilli Jr will represent MGM. He has come down heavily on the two companies and says that they are "promoting themselves as sources of infringing content" and "deliberately disabling and avoiding mechanisms that would limit infringement."
The companies however, refute this and around 200 companies representing various worldwide interests have filed 55 amicus briefs with the Supreme Court. These companies, among whom Intel figures prominently, have put forth an argument that if the court were to find for the music industry, then it would seriously hamper technological advances.
At issue is a 1984 ruling by the court in the Sony Betamax videocassette recorder case that the company was not liable to the users' actions. The entertainment industry is seeking a reversal of this verdict.
Kaleidoscope Chief Executive Michael Malcolm says, "My fear is if a company is faced with having to carry on a long litigation just to demonstrate that it has done everything it can to prevent infringing uses, it's going to kill most companies that would be innovating,"
Meanwhile, there is no indication on which way the pendulum will swing come Tuesday. A decision though is expected before the summer recess of the court. The only thing to add is simply, watch this space.
