PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING

GROKSTER AND PEER-TO-PEER FILE SHARING

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Spring term’05 that popular file-sharing sites can be held liable when their users pirate music. The entertainment companies argue that the sites which are free to anyone willing to download their software break the law because they allow millions of people to swap digital copies of copyrighted songs and movies. The sites disagree saying that they can’t be sued because merely provide technology for swapping any kind of computer file. The U.S. Supreme Court decided that they can be sued and remanded the case back to the lower courts. The case, Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer v. Grokster, will now return to a lower court to be tried.


For more on this topic, go to:
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/resc/html_bkup/june292005.html

After reading and reflecting, express your position on the following question?

Are sites like Grokster breaking copyright law when they provide the technology to swap any file and such swapping  by downloaders of their technology may violate copyright law? Should the lower court fine them millions of dollars and put them out of business as the entertainment industry insist be done? Or are they innocent in that they only provide the software which makes it possible to swap – both legal and illegal depending upon the user?  What would you do?