Justices In P2P Case Hesitant To Restrict Technology

A legal battle pitting the peer-2-peer culture against the entertainment industry is becoming one of the most watched cases to reach the Supreme Court in a long time.

US court set to rule on copyright Garry Barker, technology editor of Jim Puzzanghera of MercuryNews.com believes the justices will have a hard time limiting technology in order to appease the entertainment industry: Four of the nine justices expressed specific concerns during oral arguments Tuesday that such lawsuits could stifle technological innovation. Technology industry lawyers have made the same arguments and were encouraged by the court's reaction. Justice Stephen Breyer cited the printing press, the Xerox copying machine and the videocassette recorder as once-controversial technologies whose later revolutionary impacts might never have been realized if inventors had faced lawsuits over possible illegal uses. Justices Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and David Souter worried about a chilling effect on innovators if the court allowed companies like Grokster to be sued for how others used their inventions. "Why isn't it a foregone conclusion . . . the iPod developer is going to lose his shirt?" Souter asked the attorney representing the entertainment industry, Donald Verrilli Jr. The justices are not expected to decide the fate of the p2p developers until this summer. When looking at the information and realizing the position they are in, not to mention the ramifications from any decision concerning this case, it's easy to understand why the Supreme Court is moving cautiously. Update: It was brought to my attention, via an email from "Nick," that Sony owns MGM Studios. Wholly. The significance of this is Sony was the beneficiary of the Betamax ruling, which has been brought up relentlessly since the trial began. It seems like Sony is now playing both sides of the fence and is creating quite the conflict of interest. One has to wonder if the Supreme Court is going to call MGM's lawyers on this contradiction. Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for latest search news.