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The ongoing feud between the music industry and developers
of peer-to-peer (P2P) software returned to court again
yesterday.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),
backed by the National Music Publishers' Association
and more than 20 film studios, is hoping that a California
appeals court will overturn a ruling that P2P sites
can have legitimate uses.
Lining up against the RIAA and its supporters are
Grokster and StreamCast Networks (developer of Morpheus),
supported by action group the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The RIAA wants to overturn the April 2003 decision
of judge Steven Wilson that file-sharing networks have
both legitimate and illegitimate uses.
The ruling meant that P2P operators could not be held
liable for the actions of P2P users.
Judge Wilson in his ruling said that Grokster and
StreamCast were "not significantly different from companies
that sell home video recorders or copy machines, both
of which can be and are used to infringe copyrights".
But the RIAA claims that failure to reverse the decision
could "gravely threaten any possibility for meaningful
copyright protection in the digital era".
Meanwhile, P2P operators have warned that if the ruling
is changed, companies will no longer be able to develop
new and innovative products without first asking permission
from copyright owners.
Both sides will have 30 minutes in court to present
their arguments. But it is likely to be some months
before a ruling is given by the three appeal judges.
In December last year, a similar decision was handed
down by the Dutch Supreme Court after action was brought
against Sharman Networks by the RIAA's European counterpart,
the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
That court also ruled that Sharman Networks, developer
of the Kazaa software, could not be held responsible
for copyright infringement.
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