Judges rule file-sharing software legal
Found on CNet News on Wednesday, 18 August 2004
Following the lead of a lower court decision last year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said that peer-to-peer software developers could not be held liable for the copyright infringement of people using their software, as long as they had no direct ability to block the acts.
"The (record labels and movie studios) urge a re-examination of the law in the light of what they believe to be proper public policy," the court wrote. "Doubtless, taking that step would satisfy the copyright owners' immediate economic aims. However, it would also alter general copyright law in profound ways with unknown ultimate consequences outside the present context."
It's about time that the industry accepts that it has failed. Not only it missed its chance to enter the new market, but it also upset many customers, who ran into troubles with their completely ineffective "copyprotected" CDs.