On June 27, the United States Supreme Court handed down a unanimous ruling in the case of MGM Studios v. Grokster. The Court vacated a decision of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and held that creators of Internet file-sharing programs can be held liable for copyright infringement.
Enjoy a discussion of the ramifications of the decision. In particular, our faculty will focus on the following questions:
Does the decision suggest an end of file sharing and innovation in related technology?
Does the decision change or limit the ruling in the Betamax case?
Has the decision given the entertainment industry too much of a lever to stop innovative technologies which have substantial non-infringing uses?
What must an innovator do to introduce a new technology (which has substantial non-infringing and some infringing uses) to the market?
Materials include the transcript of oral argument in Grokster.
