> "Steven Moore"  wrote in message
> Since the file sharing companies are being held responsible for what
> people do with their computers then
> the gun companies will now be sued for all the woundings and killings
> by idiots with guns.
> The car companies for people killed in accidents etc  or will they...


While I'm not sure where I stand on this and am certainly a big fan of
personal responsibility one must allow that there's a difference between the
situations you present and the Grokster case.  One can hardly argue that the
primary use of guns (in the US) is to illegally kill people, and neither is
the primary use of cars to kill people in accidents.  There are substantial
legal ways that both those items can be used...and indeed are primarily used
in legal ways.  I would be all over going after gun or car companies if they
ever advertised "buy our guns...they're great for hold-ups" or "our cars are
excellent for going out and getting into wrecks and killing other people";
which is similar to what Grokster did: they marketed their software as being
good for breaking the law, and indeed their software was primarily used to
break the law.

Again, I'm not sure where I stand on this because it's a complicated
situation, but I just want to resist simplifying it too much as it's really
not like guns or cars--in fact, it seems unlike anything that has come
before it.



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