I’m a bit late on this one, but the US Supreme Court granted certiorari on MGM Studios Inc. v. Grokster Ltd. and StreamCast Networks Inc. The Court will hear oral arguments in the case in March 2005. Simply put, one of the more important cases on P2P. Slate has an article introducing the case and the issues it presents.
Supreme Court justices, who are not exactly charter members of the download generation, could have an awkward time connecting with all of this and may have been tempted to throw their hands above their robes and just give up. The genius pace of modern techno-ingenuity is enough to make some judges balk at imposing any legal blockades, for fear the law will act as a drag on invention and creativity. This fear was openly expressed by the judges on the 9th Circuit in Grokster, who noted circumspectly that “we live in a quicksilver technological environment with courts ill-suited to fix the flow of internet innovation.”
And if the velocity of modern technical genius is breathtaking, so, too, is the often ingenious entrepreneurial pluck of cyberbusinesses out to make a buck. Again in the words of the 9th Circuit: “The introduction of new technology is always disruptive to old markets, and particularly to those copyright owners whose works are sold through well established distribution mechanisms. Yet, history has shown that time and market forces often provide equilibrium in balancing interests.” If the marketplace was able to adjust and assimilate such copyright-infringing machines as the player piano, photocopier, tape recorder, video recorder, personal computer, or karaoke machine, the reasoning goes, it will eventually figure out a way to handle the MP3 player.
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