For Immediate Release: Tuesday, February 3, 2004
Pasadena, CA – A federal appeals court today heard arguments in an entertainment industry appeal of MGM Studios v. Grokster, a case that is testing the strength of the Supreme Court’s famous “Betamax” decision in the digital arena.
“The MGM v. Grokster case will decide whether innovators need to ask permission from Hollywood before they provide consumers with exciting new tools,” said Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann, who argued on behalf of Streamcast, distributor of the Morpheus software.
In April 2003, StreamCast and fellow P2P software distributor Grokster won a landmark victory against 28 entertainment companies when a federal court declared that the software distributors are not liable for copyright infringement by software users when the software had significant legal uses. Examples of legal uses include test marketing of copyrighted music by record companies, sharing music by artists like Janis Ian, Dave Matthews Band, and Phish, who permit the distribution of live music recordings, and sharing public domain materials such as the works of Shakespeare, NASA photographs, and films in the Prelinger archives.
In ruling that filesharing software deserves the same protection granted to the VCR or photocopier, the court relied on the 1984 Supreme Court decision determining that Sony could not be held responsible for copyright infringement by people who use Betamax VCRs.
Judges Robert Boochever, John Noonan, and Sydney Thomas heard the MGM Studios v. Grokster case (numbers 03-55894, 03-55901, and 03-56236) in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Pasadena, CA.
EFF represents StreamCast in the MGM v. Grokster case, along with co-counsel Charles Baker of the Austin, TX, firm of Munsch, Hardt, Kopf & Harr, and StreamCast in-house General Counsel Matthew A. Neco. Mike Page argued on behalf of co-defendant Grokster.
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