James Delahunty
9 Nov 2004 13:03
StreamCast, which owns the Morpheus P2P Network has formally asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reject requests made by the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to revisit lower court decisions that confirm the legality of P2P networks. In August 2004 the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal's said that a verdict casing in stone the legitimacy of P2P software be allowed to stand. In April 2003 a District Court ruling stated that since P2P networks had many legitimate uses, the software's developers can't be held to account if their code is misused.
"It is our belief that there is no need for the Supreme Court to review the matter," said Matthew Neco, StreamCast's general counsel. "The ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirming the trial court's ruling was based on a perfect understanding of the precedent of the Sony-Betamax case."
In 1984 an attempt was made by the Movie Industry to sue Sony for offering a device that was capable of recording from TV stations. The court rejected this since the device could easily be put to legit uses.
Source:
The Register