Win for Grokster and Morpheus

"In a case that could turn the tide on online piracy," CBS reports, "a Los Angeles judge ruled Friday in favor of online file-sharing services Grokster and Morpheus, saying the two companies are not liable for online piracy by users of their service. The follow-on services to Napster -- which was forced to give up sharing of music files -- were sued by several major entertainment companies who sought to take the firms to trial."

[Via Blogcritics, which has a lot of good background links.]

Update: You can read the ruling here.

Comments

[Bryan Alexander]

Good news, but limited, and not really a surprise. They are very different cases.

Morpheus and Grokster make tools, and distance themselves hugely from their customers - as opposed to Napster, whose corporate directories were essential to every downloaded application. That distance has a lot of legal power - especially for Grokster, which has some background in p2p computing, and is careful to advocate noninfringing uses.

The Verizon case is perhaps more troubling. If the appeal fails, the ruling punctures the ISP safe harbor provision. Since we all need ISPs to get online, we all lose a level of privacy thereby. Worse yet, unlike old wiretapping, which needed a judge's say-so, this new process requires only a court clerk, which makes more fishing expeditions possible, removes a protective due process layer, and adds further range to the people who are already siccing spiders across the net and into our machines.

[Anonymous]

Not only do we need ISP's to get online, we need electricity too. Why are ISP's being singled out?

[Robert Murray]

What I think should be is a website where you can download mp3s for your own personal use and not to share with anyone. It also should be free. With the high prices of CDs that is why people want to download for free. If Cds were cheaper there wouldnt be this problem.

[Robert Murray]

What I think should be is a website where you can download mp3s for your own personal use and not to share with anyone. It also should be free. With the high prices of CDs that is why people want to download for free. If Cds were cheaper there wouldnt be this problem.

[Robert Murray]

What I think should be is a website where you can download mp3s for your own personal use and not to share with anyone. It also should be free. With the high prices of CDs that is why people want to download for free. If Cds were cheaper there wouldnt be this problem.

[Robert Murray]

What I think should be is a website where you can download mp3s for your own personal use and not to share with anyone. It also should be free. With the high prices of CDs that is why people want to download for free. If Cds were cheaper there wouldnt be this problem.

[Robert Murray]

What I think should be is a website where you can download mp3s for your own personal use and not to share with anyone. It also should be free. With the high prices of CDs that is why people want to download for free. If Cds were cheaper there wouldnt be this problem.

[Robert Murray]

What I think should be is a website where you can download mp3s for your own personal use and not to share with anyone. It also should be free. With the high prices of CDs that is why people want to download for free. If Cds were cheaper there wouldnt be this problem.

[Robert Murray]

What I think should be is a website where you can download mp3s for your own personal use and not to share with anyone. It also should be free. With the high prices of CDs that is why people want to download for free. If Cds were cheaper there wouldnt be this problem.