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