U.S. Entertainment Industry Appeal Threatens Technology Development, First Amendment Rights LOS ANGELES, Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ — Sharman Networks, the publisher and distributor of Kazaa Media Desktop, has filed a brief of amicus curiae with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, urging the Court to uphold the Order of Judge Stephen Wilson that the providers of peer-to-peer technology cannot be held responsible for copyright infringement by users.
In filing its amicus brief, Sharman Networks joined leading civil liberties groups, prominent intellectual property and technology law professors and information technology groups in supporting Judge Wilson’s decision.
The U.S. Entertainment industry’s appeal to change copyright law defined by the 1984 Sony Betamax doctrine would inexorably extend their copyright monopolies, chill new technology development, and threaten First Amendment protections, according to the amicus filings by Sharman Networks, its joint enterprise partner Altnet and a raft of organizations and law professors.
The amicus briefs all warn against “evisceration” of the existing copyright doctrine advocated in the U.S. entertainment industry’s appeal of Justice Stephen Wilson’s ruling that, consistent with the 1984 Sony Betamax doctrine, peer-to-peer application providers cannot be held responsible for copyright infringement by users of their applications merely because they distribute a new technology capable of substantial non-infringing uses, even though the technology can be misused to infringe copyrights.
According to an amicus brief filed by 40 intellectual property and technology law professors, the ‘new rules’ that the U.S. entertainment industry appeal seeks would “fundamentally change the balance that the Supreme Court crafted in ‘Sony’, create uncertainty and ambiguity in the law, and likely have chilling effect on technology development and public access to new technology.”
In addition, the American Civil Liberties Union’s brief notes that these ‘new rules’ would “allow interests of individual copyright holders to eviscerate … crucial protections contained in the First Amendment.”
The Computer & Communications Industry Association warns that the entertainment industry appeal would replace existing rules with “new standards that would as a practical matter give the entertainment industry a veto power over the development of innovative products and services.”
Nikki Hemming, CEO of Sharman Networks said: “The collection of amicus briefs filed by Sharman and others reflects the diversity of interests affected by the entertainment industry’s proposed changes to the law. This case is not just about the rights of the entertainment industry, but the rights of individuals to freedom of speech and expression, the right for p2p to exist, and ultimately, the right of any emerging technology to develop without the threat of myopic extinction. There is no justification for one stakeholder group to demand that its rights outweigh all others, nor should the desires of one industry attempt to shape the progress of technology. This group — the entertainment industry — cannot and should not be able to demand such power.”
The organizations that have filed amicus briefs include:
* American Civil Liberties Union
* American Library Association
* American Association of Law Libraries
* Computer & Communications Industry Association
* Consumer Electronics Association
* Home Recording Rights Coalition
* Medical Library Association
* Net Coalition
* Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic University of California at Berkeley School of Law
In addition, 40 law professors at law schools around the country have filed amicus briefs.
Copies of all of the amicus briefs are publicly available at the Electronic Freedom Foundation (see links below), or on request.
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/20030926_aclu_amicus.pdf
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/20030926_lawyers_amicus.pdf
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/20030927_cea_amicus.pdf
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/20030926_ccia_amicus.pdf
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/20030929_altnet_amicus.pdf
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/20030929_sharman_amicus.pdf
About Sharman Networks Limited
Sharman Networks Limited distributes the popular Kazaa Media Desktop software, the leading peer-to-peer application that allows users to search, download, organize and interact with a variety of file types. Founded in 2002, Sharman Networks is a private company committed to distributing computing software applications that are pioneering the digital revolution. Sharman Networks is a worldwide operation. For more information about Kazaa Media Desktop, Sharman Network’s leading P2P software application, please visit Kazaa.com.
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