IP: misuse of copyright might invalidate: Napster Case: Is Judge Turning Tables On Labels?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Sat, 02 Feb 2002 07:54:12 -0500
> To: dave () farber net
> From:
> Dave, of interest to IP, I believe    NOTE: please omit my name from if 
> posted to IP
>
>
> It is long determined law that patents, if sought to be used 
> anti-competitively .... the party seeking to enforce a patent in an 
> anti-competitive manner risks losing it. Perhaps RIAA may have tripped a 
> wire in its unrelenting pursuit of Napster. Seems like US Federal Judge is 
> hinting that Napster may be allowed to prove that assertion that RIAA may 
> have overplayed its hand.
>
> XXX XXXX  JD, BE
>
> -----------
>
> > Friday, February 01, 2002
> > Napster Case: Is Judge Turning Tables On Labels?
>
> http://www.bizreport.com//print.php?art_id=2896&width=800
>
> > by Kevin Featherly
> >
> > A judge's decision allowing Napster to pursue copyright misuse claims 
> > against major record labels seems to signal a sea change in the music 
> > industry's lawsuit against the peer-to-peer song-swapping service, 
> > according to a trio of legal experts.
> >
> > In a Jan. 16 hearing, the transcript of which was obtained by Newsbytes, 
> > U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel told lawyers that she had decided 
> > to begin a discovery phase in the trial, allowing Napster to examine 
> > whether music labels have misused their copyrights.
> >
> > If she were to rule that labels have misused their rights, one expert 
> > told Newsbytes, at the extreme it could mean the labels could not enforce 
> > their copyrights. Such a decision, conceivably, could kill the labels' 
> > case against Napster, which has been accused of contributory copyright 
> > infringement for allowing millions of people to tap into a rich mine of 
> > free songs on the Internet.

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