StreamCast / Grokster appeal
p2pnet.net News:- StreamCast Networks ceo Mike Weiss says Hollywood’s bid to get the US Supreme Court to overturn the decision that p2p companies aren’t responsible for how people use their software, could be the beginning of the end …
… for Hollywood.
“The issues of this case will finally be put to rest once and for all,” he says, “and the plaintiffs will have run out of court venues to pursue.”
StreamCast owns the p2p application Morpheus. Together with p2p app Grokster, it’s been the subject of a long, drawn-out battle instigated by the entertainment industry in its efforts to bring p2p under its exclusive control.
The US Court of Appeals for the 9th circuit decided, unanimously, that p2p companies aren’t liable for, “contributory and vicarious copyright infringement” on the part of people who use their applications.
Notwithstanding, the entertainment industry is pulling out all the stops in a last-ditch bid to get the unequivocal ruling turned around and was granted certiorari in MGM v Grokster. Arguments are scheduled for March, 2005.
But, “If history is any predictor of the future, then the outcome of this case should strongly favor the side of innovation,” he says.
“In the past, whenever technological has been challenged, technology has won.”
