The Bush Administration, the Christian Coalition, and the record and movie industry filed briefs yesterday with the US Supreme Court advocating that peer-to-peer file sharing networks like Grokster, and Morpheus should be liable for copyright infringement happening on their networks.
Defenders of the right to swap have until the end of February to respond. The court is considering whether to overturn the 20 year old precedent in Sony vs Universal Pictures that made the VCR possible despite its potential for use in copyright infringement. At stake, not only the future of file sharing networks, but many consumer electronics devices like CD and DVD recorders, Tivo, and more. This will be a very important decision which will define what it means to own a movie or a cd or anything of that nature.
And, in similar news, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recently announced its Endangered Gizmos List, which includes devices that are heading towards extinction due to digital rights management and the like. Some of the devices include TiVo, digital to analog converters and things like the iPod. Take a look. And, here’s an interesting perspective on why the Tivo hasn’t really gotten much better than when it first came out. And, also another point along the same lines.
Cheers.
