Xayd
26th April 2003, 07:17
RIAA handed somewhat shocking defeat
In somewhat of a trend reversal for RIAA versus file sharing legal battles, an LA federal judge has handed a victory to file swapping services Streamcast networks and Grokster, ruling that their technology is not liable for the copyright abuses that occurs within them. According to a statement by Judge Stephen Wilson, "Defendants distribute and support software, the users of which can and do choose to employ it for both lawful and unlawful ends." Wilson also made the determination that "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."
The quote is from the Judge's press statement.
Depending on the wording of this opinion, it may go ahead and trump alot of the state DMCA laws that are in the news in the US lately. When the company I works for gets the full text of the opinion (probably next week) I'll post it.
Bottom line: If the rest of the opinion is written like that quote, a Federal Judge has already wiped out the much of the DMCA legislation in the US by stating that any device or software with legitimate uses is a legal device or software, no matter what users do with it. This could be a big decision ;).
For those not familiar with the workings of the United States federal court system, any federal-level appointed judge has the authority to strike down both state and federal law via written opinion in a particular case, so depending on the wording in this opinion this judge may be doing just that.
In somewhat of a trend reversal for RIAA versus file sharing legal battles, an LA federal judge has handed a victory to file swapping services Streamcast networks and Grokster, ruling that their technology is not liable for the copyright abuses that occurs within them. According to a statement by Judge Stephen Wilson, "Defendants distribute and support software, the users of which can and do choose to employ it for both lawful and unlawful ends." Wilson also made the determination that "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."
The quote is from the Judge's press statement.
Depending on the wording of this opinion, it may go ahead and trump alot of the state DMCA laws that are in the news in the US lately. When the company I works for gets the full text of the opinion (probably next week) I'll post it.
Bottom line: If the rest of the opinion is written like that quote, a Federal Judge has already wiped out the much of the DMCA legislation in the US by stating that any device or software with legitimate uses is a legal device or software, no matter what users do with it. This could be a big decision ;).
For those not familiar with the workings of the United States federal court system, any federal-level appointed judge has the authority to strike down both state and federal law via written opinion in a particular case, so depending on the wording in this opinion this judge may be doing just that.