Supreme Court Date Set for Grokster

Washington, DC - The US Supreme Court set the date for
oral argument in MGM v. Grokster for March 29, 2005. EFF
is defending StreamCast Networks, the company behind the
Morpheus peer-to-peer (P2P) software, against 28 of the
world's largest entertainment companies.

The companies first brought this lawsuit against the makers
of the Morpheus, Grokster, and KaZaA software products
in 2001, hoping to obtain a legal precedent that would hold
technology makers responsible for the infringements
committed by the users of their products. The entertainment
companies lost 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.

A final ruling is expected by the end of July 2005.

For this media alert:
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_01.php#002221


MGM v. Grokster case archive:
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/