Re: [slim] File-Sharing Services May Be Sued
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... Steven Moore On 27 Jun 2005, at 17:25, Johan Hübner wrote: We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by the clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties, Justice David H. Souter wrote for the court. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] File-Sharing Services May Be Sued
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. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] File-Sharing Services May Be Sued
Still reading the decision. Initial reaction: this isn't a big deal - they cited common law and kicked it back down. It may actually be a positive thing for p2p - they have narrowed the liability question to simply how Grokster was marketed. MGM needs to show that they were promoting it for illegal purposes. If some other p2p network were more careful than Grokster was in that respect, they'd still be safe per Betamax. It's the same as: OK to market bullets for killing, not murder OK to market glass pipes for smoking, not smoking pot Full decision is here BTW: http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/04-480.pdf ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
