File-sharing companies not liable for illegal use by customers

Two file-sharing networks, under fire from the music and movie industries, received a favourable ruling from a federal judge today, saying that they are not liable for the illegal use of their software by their customers.

The 34-page ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson was a blow to recording companies and movie studios that had sought to stem the illegal copying and distribution of their copyright works.

[...] In his ruling, Wilson cited the movie industry's efforts to hold Sony liable for video cassette recorders that can be used to make illegal copies of copyright works.

Basically, the judge ruled that there was no evidence that either Grokster or StreamCast (the distributors of Morpheus) could "supervise and control" the use of their services by their customers. The difference between these file-sharing services and Napsters is that Napster maintained directories of files available through its software on their own servers, which theoretically gave them a much greater abililty to control and filter what was allowed to pass through.

Obviously, the ruling will be appealled, but based on the precedent from the Sony VCR case, my guess is that it could well be upheld.

Posted by thorswitch at April 26, 2003 12:29 AM | TrackBack