Sunday, August 14, 2005|
Supreme Court Ruling Will Chill Technology Innovation. Copyright Liability Standard in Grokster Decision Endangers P2P and Other New Technologies
Washington, DC - Today the Supreme Court issued a ruling that could impede makers of all kinds of technologies with expensive lawsuits. The long-awaited decision in MGM v. Grokster states that P2P software manufacturers can be held liable for the infringing activities of people who use their software. This decision relies on a new theory of copyright liability that measures whether manufacturers created their wares with the "intent" of inducing consumers to infringe. It means that inventors and entrepreneurs will not only bear the costs of bringing new products to market, but also the costs of lawsuits if consumers start using their products for illegal purposes.
"Today the Supreme Court has unleashed a new era of legal uncertainty on America's innovators," said Fred von Lohmann, EFF's senior intellectual property attorney. "The newly announced inducement theory of copyright liability will fuel a new generation of entertainment industry lawsuits against technology companies. Perhaps more important, the threat of legal costs may lead technology companies to modify their products to please Hollywood instead of consumers."
The Supreme Court has also ordered the lower court to consider whether peer-to-peer companies Grokster and StreamCast can be held liable under the new standard. StreamCast is confident that it will pass muster under the new, multi-pronged test.
MGM v. Grokster was brought by 28 of the world's largest entertainment companies against the makers of the Morpheus, Grokster, and KaZaA filesharing software products in 2001. The entertainment companies hoped to obtain a legal precedent that would hold all technology makers responsible for the infringements committed by the users of their products. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), along with StreamCast counsel Matt Neco and Charles Baker of Porter and Hedges, defended StreamCast Networks, the company behind the Morpheus filesharing software.
The entertainment companies lost their case in District Court, then lost again on appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The lower court rulings were based on the Supreme Court's landmark decision in the 1984 Sony Betamax case, which determined that Sony was not liable for copyright violations by users of the Betamax VCR.
Contacts:
Cindy Cohn
Fred von Lohmann 10:27:46 AM 
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"Podcast" now officially part of the English language. Filed under: General, Podcasting  Much to the shagrin of Microsoft employees, the word "Podcast" has been added to the Oxford Dictionary, officially making it part of the English language. Podcast joins with other notable additions to the famed dictionary such as fanboy, offshoring, supersize and hinglish.Example of all three used in a sentence: Droxy's own fanboy Ryan Saghir attempted to supersize his Hinglish podcast recordings by offshoring to Mumbai. Ehhh... that's all I can come up with. If you've got something even remotely funny, post a comment. [Via iPodDailyNews]
10:24:40 AM
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XM looking at Wireless Satellite Radio. Filed under: Digital Broadcasting, XM  XM Satellite Radio CEO Hugh Panero said that XM has been in talks with mobile hardware companies and service providers about how they can enter the wireless industry. Sirius has already announced a deal with Sprint to deliver select Sirius content to their PCS Vision subscribers, though the timing on the deal is still unknown.Panero brought up a couple possibilities: Selling content to wireless providers, or deliverying directly to cellphones that are XM-enable (presumably using their new XM Connect-and-Play technology). While Panero didn't disclose any company names, we do know that they've recently partnered with Samsung, so you can bet that's one foot in the door they're going to exploit. [via PaidContent]
10:21:58 AM
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Podcasting gets VC's Ok, I know there are plenty out there that want to discount the value of podcasting, etc., etc. However, both Podshow and Odeo have just received funding to help take another step to viable business models.
Adam Curry's Podshow got a commitment of $8.5M and Odeo's is undisclosed at this time.
The "network" podcasting model could be the way to provide scale to advertisers/agencies that specifically need niche "formats" without having to contact every individual podcaster.
First iTunes 4.9, now venture capital money.
Keep an eye out on bigger companies (ie. Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft??) wanting to buy these "networks" to provide another advertising opportunity. Hmm...Mark Cuban did pretty well when Yahoo! came knocking on his door back in the Broadcast.com days...
Thank you Doug Kaye for the heads up!
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CacheLogic Claims Nearly 2/3 of files on P2P are videos
The four networks in question were Gnutella, the primary network used by Deepnet Explorer, Bearshare, Limewire and many more. Another network was FastTrack, which is in decline but mostly used by Morpheus, Grokster and KaZaa. Another network was Bittorrent, which is different than most networks as you can’t search it (until recently when a web search was introduced). Finally eDonkey was also used. The only big network missing was Gnutella2, the primary network used by Sharaza and TrustyFiles. The report also brought us some groundbreaking news, 68.9% of audio files being swapped are MP3s. I would have never guessed! I never see OGGs or WMAs being swapped (am I the only one who uses them? Apparently not, 12.3% are OGGs, really!). The BBC explains this by then yatting on how the networks work, Bittorrent tracker sites host links… The report found large files such as videos or Linux distros are swapped on Bittorrent or eDonkey and small ones (music) are swapped on FastTrack or Gnutella. I would like to see someone who actually downloaded a single from BitTorrent! It also found that lots of legal file sharing is taking place on BitTorrent (namely Linux distros). However there has being a fall in the amount of files on BitTorrent after the MPAAs hunt on trackers, which could have caused SuprNova to shut. The thing I found most funny about the article was the picture they chose. How could you Tags: music, movies, video, videos, mp3, P2P, file-sharing, linux, open-source - J Anderson [Webby's World]10:02:00 AM
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P2P traffic analysts 
run a video on the image to the right – it’s using an old style keyboard and most computers are black. It looks from the Windows 95 period – but then again it could have a 3Ghz processor, but that’s highly unlikely.|
Technorati to be Sold?
I for one have thought before What is Technorati’s business plan? the answer is no one knows. This means it will probably be sold to a big company. I’m not really one for this kind of thing but who will it be? Microsoft, Google or Yahoo! My bet is on Yahoo!, however Google may be interested in offering real-time results. Yahoo! seems very keen to extend it’s influence in the blogosphere with the likes of Yahoo! 360 and it’s purchase of Blo.gs. A Microsoft-blogger named Robert Scoble said if he had the cash and power he would buy it, though I believe Microsoft will eventually take over the blogosphere (just after Bill Gates achieves world domination), I believe they would invent there own product (for once!). Microsoft didn’t buy MSN Spaces, unlike nearly everything else they make, but made it. If Technorati is bought I hope they improve it by reducing spam. Tags: Technorati, google, microsoft, msn, Yahoo, Yahoo!, blogosphere, blog, blogs, search, search engine, tagging (via.) - J Anderson [Webby's World]10:01:09 AM
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BL Ochamn|
Last week two podcasting companies announced investments by venture capitalists and angel investors in Silicon Valley and Boston. The investors must have some idea what businesses the companies are in, but we're no wiser after the announcements. What do you think? [Scripting News] 9:41:00 AM
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Last update: 6/6/06; 9:16:05 AM .
