Judges Rule File-Sharing Software Legal

KingFishKingFish
edited August 2004 in Science & Tech
A federal appeals court has upheld a controversial court decision that said file-sharing software programs such as Grokster or Morpheus are legal.
Following the lead of a lower-court decision last year, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Los Angeles said on Thursday that peer-to-peer software developers were not liable for any copyright infringement committed by people using their products, as long as they had no direct ability to stop the acts. The ruling means that companies that write and distribute peer-to-peer software can't be shut down because of the actions of their customers. It did not say file-trading itself is legal, and lower courts in the United States have said individual computer users are breaking the law when they trade copyrighted files without permission. But the ruling does lift the cloud of potential liability from defendants Grokster and StreamCast Networks, as well as from many of their rivals.
Source: ZDNet

Comments

  • FormFactorFormFactor At the core of forgotten
    edited August 2004
    YEAH BABY!! STICK IT TOP THE MAN!


    w00t!
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited August 2004
    Does it even matter anymore?
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