p2p
March 29, 2005, 01:34 PM Views: 1530
Comments: 21
 Cuban Helps As P2P Case Heads To Supreme Court, Though Interest Slips Mar 28, 2005- FMQB.com
The stage is set for the Supreme Court to begin hearings tomorrow on the case between the record and movie industries and file-sharing program companies. The four major labels, 25,000 music publishers and seven movie studios have teamed up to take on StreamCast (distributor of Morpheus) and Grokster. However, the P2P side of the case has gotten a big name to back them: Mark Cuban. The Dallas Mavericks owner, who made his fortune founding Broadcast.com, then selling it to Yahoo!, announced over the weekend on his personal blog that he will be funding Grokster's defense in the lawsuit. Cuban wrote, "If Grokster loses, technological innovation might not die, but it will have such a significant price tag associated with it, it will be the domain of the big corporations only. It will be a sad day when American corporations start to hold their U.S. digital innovations and inventions overseas to protect them from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), moving important jobs overseas with them." He continues, "It doesn't matter that the RIAA has been wrong about innovations and the perceived threat to their industry every single time. It just matters that they can spend more (than) everyone else on lawyers." Sony BMG CEO Andrew Lack has also weighed in on the impending case. In a Q&A with USA Today, Lack says the labels are "looking for a balance between the creative content side and the so-called technology side of the equation. We do not want to see the Sony Betamax decision overthrown. Technology, such as the iPod, is a friend to the music industry. But these devices are irrelevant without content." He adds that Grokster's "business is based on stealing. ... They aren't sharing material. They're stealing material and distributing it in ways they have created to avoid responsibility ... No one can find that substantial legitimate use inside Grokster. It's a racket, plain and simple." This all comes on the heels of a new survey that sees interest in P2P file sharing declining. According to the Pew Internet And American Life Project, downloaders are more inclined to say they are using legal downloading services such as iTunes or Napster than Kazaa or Morpheus. Legal music downloading has increased in the past year, but Pew warns that people "may now be less likely to report peer-to-peer usage due to the stigma associated with the networks". Also, many respondents said they traded files via more direct, one-on-one methods. For example, 19 percent reported downloading from someone else's iPod, and 28 percent reported sending songs over Instant Messenger or email.
Last edited by Heron : July 21, 2009 at 09:35 PM.
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!!! It's not so bad for you over in the UK. In the US their pretty bad about prosecuting people for file sharing hence why I started altsounds.com so that I could gt some quality music whenever I want it without having to worry about tht shit.
