The cast of the ongoing peer-to-peer drama
Published: 28 Jun 2005 18:10 BST
Peer-to-peer partisans
Grokster, StreamCast Networks: The two companies that prompted the lawsuit, along with Kazaa's parent company Sharman Networks (which has been left in lower courts, following jurisdictional disputes).
Both companies produced software that was used to create decentralised file-swapping networks, eschewing the original Napster's ongoing role as a facilitator of searches and swaps. Two lower courts said that was enough to relieve them of responsibility for actions of people using their software.
At the time of the original lawsuit, Streamcast Networks' Morpheus was on its way to becoming the most popular file-swapping software in the world. It was replaced almost overnight by Kazaa, which in turn has now been eclipsed by eDonkey.
Electronic Frontier Foundation: The San Francisco-based EFF has provided key legal and intellectual support for file-swapping software companies throughout the Grokster case. The group agreed to represent Streamcast Networks not long after that company was sued by copyright holders, contending that the lawsuit was different in critical ways than the Napster case.
Lawyers for the EFF have consistently argued that peer to peer is a general-use technology — like computers. By targeting companies that released software and then had no further direct interaction with users, the record labels and movie studios threatened innovation and digital rights well beyond peer to peer, the EFF argued.
From the sidelines
Silicon Valley: Led by Intel and venture capitalists, technology leaders have been deeply worried that any changes to the 1984 Sony Betamax decision could undermine their business. That case, which protected the sale of any device that has "substantial noninfringing uses", has been critical to the production and distribution of products from the CD burner to the iPod to the personal computer itself.
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