Sharman to sue Hollywood
Kazaa owner Sharman Networks can sue the RIAA and MPAA for copyright-infringement and breach of contract, says US District Judge Stephen Wilson.
Rejecting arguments by the labels and studios that Sharman’s allegations were too vague, Wilson ruled that specificity isn’t required at this stage of the case, says a Bloomberg News story here.
Among other things, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) have been posting phony mp3 files on p2p networks as part of their bid to shut down p2p file sharing.
Sharman says the two Hollywood trade organs also used Kazaa software to track users and send threatening messages, “in a violation of Kazaa’s terms for using the network,” states the report.
Last year, Wilson decided the owners of two other commercial p2p programs, Grokster (Grokster Ltd) and Morpheus Morpheus (Streamcast Networks Inc), couldn’t control how people use their apps and so couldn’t be held liable for piracy by third-party users.
He cited the 1984 Sony Betamax case where Hollywood tried to have VCRs banned. However, the Supreme Court ruled that use of new technology to infringe copyrights didn’t justify such an action.
“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,” Wilson wrote. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals is slated to hear Hollywood’s attempt to have his ruling overturned next month.
Wilson, “didn’t rule on antitrust claims brought by Sharman, saying that portion of the lawsuit should be delayed until a federal appeals court rules on a related part of the case,” says Bloomberg, adding:
“The antitrust claims ‘aren’t moving forward for now and at the end of the day, even if they do, Sharman won’t be able to prove its case,’ the RIAA said in a statement. MPAA spokeswoman Marta Grutka declined to comment.
January 26th, 2004 at 8:36 am
So Sharman threatens to sue the big guns? Great, go for it! The RIAA and the MPAA are using stealth tactics to catch people by posing as p2p sharers. This is the lowest of the low. It also raises the question: They hack onto p2p users IP addresses by deploying spyware, isn’t that an infringement of our privacy rights? After all they are spying on us without our written or otherwise consent, which is an infringement of our civil liberties. I hope Sharman takes them all the way and kicks them where it hurts most. The RIAA bleats about p2p users stealing from their pitiful companies but sees no wrong in secretly spying on members of the public. At the end of the day all they are concerned with is raking in more money from an already overcharged public. They say they are looking out for the welfare of their employees, that is bull. An employee is someone who works for an employer whether it is an artist/musician or a factory employee manking the discs. They all work for the labels yet when there is a downturn in music who gets shafted? The factory worker. The compaines will ALWAYS find cheaper ways to manufacture their product yet they will not pass these savings on to Joe public will they. So who benefits and who gets shafted? You decide