P2P client Grokster and MGM Studios are preparing to face in Supreme Court on Tuesday in a case having broad ramifications towards the use and sharing of entertainment-based properties. According to synopsis, the EFF provided a table demonstrating the similarities between the Grokster case and the Betamax ruling:
P2P
"By design, Grokster and StreamCast are used overwhelmingly for infringement."Betamax
"The district court expressly found pervasive librarying activities, and the uncontroverted survey evidence established that 69% to 75% of all Betamax owners maintain large libraries of off-the-air recordings and that the vast majority of programs in those libraries are copyrighted motion pictures.... This same survey shows that less than 9% of all recordings consists of religious (0%), educational (1.6%), and sports (7.3%) programs -- the type of material purportedly owned by most of the limited number of witnesses who testified that they did not object to VTR copying."The Supreme Court nevertheless held that the use of the Betamax to record programs authorized for recording, less than 9% of uses, was a substantial noninfringing use sufficient to protect Sony from copyright liability.
P2P
"...Grokster and StreamCast have chosen not to implement available technologies that would block or filter infringing content on their networks."Betamax
"[Noninfringing] uses could also continue if petitioners were directed to devise a technological means to prevent VTR copying only of programs owned by respondents and others who object to such copying."Disney and Universal claimed that an inexpensive "jamming" circuit could be inexpensively added to the Betamax that would respond to a "broadcast flag" embedded in TV broadcasts.
No comments yet. Be the first to comment!