Peer 2 Peer and Copyrights. (1 Viewer)

[currysauce]

Just thought this was interesting:

A few weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision in the case of MGM Studios et al vs. Grokster, Ltd and Streamcast Networks. The other plaintiffs represented by the "et al" included the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the National Music Publishers' Association of America. In summary, the Court ruled that the Hollywood movie studios and record companies could sue the peer-to-peer file-sharing service because its users were illegally trading copyrighted works over their network. The studios had appealed after losing in the Ninth Circuit Court.

On the face of it, this decision is troubling. It seems to set a dangerous precedent, akin to the efforts of gun control advocates to sue firearms manufacturers for the crimes committed with their products. Our argument against that theory was that you would also have to allow lawsuits against the makers of kitchen knives that were used to commit murder, or pieces of lumber that were used to hit someone over the head. Our concern with this decision is similar.

This is only an exerpt from WXNews...

Thoughts

 

[LadyBec]

It is troubling... the designers and owners of the software may provide the means for people to break the law, but at the end of they day what people chose to do with it is their own choice. No one forces them to use it to break the law, and most P2P networks have warnings about how it's illegal to download music and movies and other copyright stuff