How the courts wrestle with copyright and creativity in internet age
The Grokster case is just one of the many lawsuits that the major
record labels, usually represented by the RIAA, have brought against
new technologies that have the ability to infringe on their copyrights.
In this case, MGM and others filed suit against P2P file sharing networks
Grokster and Streamcast under the legal theory of “contributory and vicarious
liability”. Since the P2P companies themselves are not directly
infringing copyrights – they’re merely providing the means
for the filesharing to occur – this theory is currently the only
legal recourse copyright owners have to stop the networks from allowing
music files to be freely traded on the internet. read more