Can anyone down there spell consumer?

摘要

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has spoken in the matter of the recording industry vs. Grokster et al. The court upheld a lower court ruling that distributors of peer-to-peer file-sharing software are not liable for copyright infringement. This decision was well reasoned and, if the legal precedents were to be followed, inevitable. But it will likely result in a far more draconian pro-copyright legal environment in the U.S., an environment that could seriously threaten technological innovation. Last year I wrote about the lower court decision in this case and explained the court's logic in rejecting the charge of copyright infringement (www.nwfusion. com, DocFinder: 3631). The court of appeals supported the lower court's logic and observed the "introduction of new technology is always disruptive of old markets, and particularly to those copyright owners whose works are sold through well-established distribution mechanisms" (see DocFinder: 3632).