MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 07:13, 9 March 2006

Revision as of 07:15, 9 March 2006

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Roughly speaking, the Ginsburg concurrence suggests that Grokster would be liable (unprotected by ''Sony'') even absent evidence of [[incitement]]. The Breyer concurrence, on the other hand, suggests that Grokster would be protected by ''Sony'' without evidence of incitement. The Souter opinion does not address whether or not ''Sony'' protects Grokster. Thus, neither the view that Grokster is protected nor the view that Grokster is unprotected by ''Sony'' commanded a plurality of the Court.

The majority of the Justices would have either expanded or contracted the [[Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.|Sony Betamax doctrine]], however the Court as a whole has not chosen to reexamine the [[Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.|Betamax]] precedent in the decision, being split into three equal groups. Thus the Betamax ruling was reviewed only as necessary to properly detail the issues involved in this case. Instead, a new and - as several critics have contended - ambiguous test has been developed to determine whether the software in question is not protected by the Sony ruling. Briefly stated, it has to be shown that the distributors of the program have advertised and/or otherwise inducedincited its use for copyright infringement; if this intent can be shown, additional contributory aspects may be relevant. For example, MGM et al. had asserted that the defendants' refusal to incorporate protocols that would filter copyrighted materials from the file-sharing network constitutes an intent to promote copyright infringement. In Footnote 12, however, Justice Souter notes that

:"...in the absence of other evidence of intent, a court would be unable to find contributory infringement liability merely based on a failure to take affirmative steps to prevent infringement, if the device otherwise was capable of substantial noninfringing uses. Such a holding would tread too close to the ''Sony'' safe harbor."