In re Aimster & MGM, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.: Peer-to-Peer and the Sony Doctrine
In: Berkeley Technology Law Journal, Jg. 19 (2004), S. 21
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Zugriff:
For the last twenty years, the Supreme Court's decision in Sony Corp. of America, Inc. v. Universal City Studios, Inc. has guided lower courts' analysis of the potential liability of technology providers whose products may be used to infringe copyrights. 1 The application of the Sony rule to digital technologies, however, has been less than straightforward. Two recent decisions regarding the legality of distributing peer-to-peer file sharing software, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. 2 and In re Aimster Copyright Litigation, 3 reached sharply different outcomes and thus left open the question of the correct legal standard to apply in assessing secondary liability for copyright infringement over the Internet. 4 Taken together, Grokster (a California federal district court case decided in April 2003, whose appeal is pending) and Aimster (a June 2003 decision by the Seventh Circuit) constitute a schism in secondary copyright infringement jurisprudence that invites further guidance from the Supreme Court, Congress, or both. This Note tracks the development of secondary copyright infringement doctrine in the peer-to-peer context and proposes that while the secondary liability limitations articulated in Sony advance important policy goals for technological development, analysis of the instant cases and their predecessors reveals crucial gaps and conflicts in the doctrine that make it difficult for courts to surmise the current legal rules and consistently apply them to digital technologies. Thus the Sony rule as it stands is inadequate to guide uniform adjudication among circuits. The Note poses the open doctrinal questions that press ...
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In re Aimster & MGM, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.: Peer-to-Peer and the Sony Doctrine
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Autor/in / Beteiligte Person: | Miles, Elizabeth |
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Zeitschrift: | Berkeley Technology Law Journal, Jg. 19 (2004), S. 21 |
Veröffentlichung: | 2004 |
Medientyp: | academicJournal |
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