COPYCENSE

"Lessig’s experience makes him uniquely qualified to render his opinion on the landmark June 27 decision (.pdf) by the Supreme Court in MGM v. Grokster to side with recording studios and against companies distributing peer-to-peer file-sharing software that lets people trade commercial songs for free.

"He’s somewhat pleased that the court’s decision to send the case back to the Ninth Circuit court in effect upheld an earlier Sony decision involving the Betamax VCR, which declined to hold manufacturers liable for illegal acts by their users.

"But Lessig contends the Supreme Court’s decision will chill innovation by introducing a new level of uncertainty about whether a technology creator had an intent to allow copyright infringement."

BusinessWeek Online. "Ten Years of Chilled Innovation". June 29, 2005.

See also:

Udpate: Anush Yegyazarian. File Sharing and the Supreme Court: The Fallout. PC World. July 7, 2005.

Siva Vaidhyanathan. Supreme Court’s Unsound Decision. Salon. June 30, 2005.

WSJ.com. Grokster Roundtable. June 28, 2005.

Declan McCullagh. Congress Applauds File-Sharing Ruling. News.com. June 27, 2005.

EFF Deep Links. Supreme Court Sows Uncertainty. June 27, 2005.

EFF Deep Links. What Is Inducement? June 27, 2005.

Ernest Miller. Notes on RIAA and MPAA Press Conference. Corante. June 27, 2005.

Mike Godwin. Don’t Stop Grokkin.’ Reason Online. June 27, 2005.

SCOTUSBlog. Deepening Disappointment. June 27, 2005.

Hilary Rosen. The Wisdom of the Court, Part 2. The Huffington Post. June 27, 2005.

The Patry Copyright Blog. The Court Punts. June 27, 2005.

Blog Maverick. Kaboom! No date.

U.S. Supreme Court. On Writ of Certiorari: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., et al. v. Grokster, LTD., et al.. (.pdf) June 27, 2005.

Electronic Frontier Foundation. Supreme Court Decision in Sony v. Universal Studios 464 U.S. 417 (1984), a.k.a. "The Betamax case". Jan. 17, 1984.