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MGM v. Grokster Date Set
An anonymous reader writes "The Supreme Court has set March 29th as the date for oral arguments to begin in the Grokster trial. As we all know the final ruling will have ramifications on the tech world well beyond P2P. A decision is expected by end of July."
"I doubt that the Justices will find the Betamax ruling precedent for a pro-Grokster ruling."
How could they not? In each case, the offending person is using a piece of technology to distribute copyrighted materials to which they have no right to distribute.
1) Two VCRs sitting next to each other, one set to record and the other to play, connected via RF cables.
2) One VCR attached to a wireless RF video distribution device set to play, ten VCRs attached to RF receivers set to record.
3) One computer playing a song via it's audio out jack, one computer recording via the audio in jack.
4) One computer hosting an audio file via a network, 100,000 computers receiving that file.
In each case, the mechanism of distribution changes, but the core principle stays the same. The Betamax case found the creators of the distribution mechanism not liable for the unlawful use (copying copyrighted materials without permission) of it's users.
Of course, there are huge differences. The original case somewhat hinged on the right of Fair Use -- a right the **AA has been trying to destroy at every turn. They believe the only "fair" use is when you pay them for each playback of the content.
In addition, there was no such thing as the DMCA. We can only hope that if / when they try to bring up the DMCA as an argument, the court finally gets a whack at it and declares it unconstitutional (or at least inconsistent with pre-existing fair use right declarations).