Grokster, Morpheus File Briefs in RIAA Appeal of Landmark P2P Ruling

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 17, 2003 - 6:44am.

Los Angeles -- Two file-sharing services that won a landmark court ruling placing the burden of copyright infringement with individual users on Wednesday filed briefs in an appeal of that ruling brought by the music and movie industries. The original ruling said that Grokster and Streamcast Networks, which operates Morpheus, were not guilty of copyright infringement -- starkly contrasting the case against Napster, which was found guilty of copyright infringement. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) filed their appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in August; Grokster and Streamcast Networks filed their response on Wednesday. "Instead of asking the court to deputize every technology vendor to enforce their copyrights for them, they should license the technology at a fair price," Grokster president Wayne Rosso told Reuters. "Five bucks a month from each of 60 million filesharers beats the hell out of filing a federal case to get $2,000 from a 12-year-old girl." http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=3461990