Status
March 2, 2005 — Briefs have been filed in the case, including the latest round of those supporting EFF. Public Knowledge, along with Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union and Free Press, filed a joint brief. Oral argument before the Supreme Court is March 29.
Summary
EFF is defending StreamCast Networks, the company behind the Morpheus P2P software, in this important lawsuit pending in federal court in Los Angeles. Twenty-eight of the world’s largest entertainment companies brought this lawsuit against the makers of the Morpheus, Grokster, and Kazaa software products, aiming to set a precedent to use against other technology companies (P2P and otherwise).
Analysis
As explained in EFF’s brief:
This case raises a question of critical importance at the border between copyright and innovation: when should the distributor of a multi-purpose tool be held liable for the infringements that may be committed by end-users of the tool? Unsatisfied with the absence of an express answer to this question in the Copyright Act, Plaintiffs here ask this Court to fashion a radical new form of technology regulation from the judicially-created doctrine of contributory copyright infringement. Such a transmogrification of the contributory infringement doctrine, however, is foreclosed by Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417, 104 S. Ct. 774, 78 L. Ed. 2d 574 (1984) (hereafter “Sony-Betamax”), the landmark Supreme Court decision that was followed and reinforced by the Ninth Circuit last year in A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc., 239 F.3d 1004 (9th Cir. 2001) (hereafter “Napster”). That path is foreclosed for good reason: technological innovation depends upon bright line rules defining when the misuse of a new technology by consumers could expose its creator to liability.
