What happens to BitTorrent after Grokster ruling by Supreme Court? [ip]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Previous Politech message:
http://www.politechbot.com/2005/06/27/supreme-court-rules/


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: What Happens to BitTorrent After Grokster?
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 09:53:06 -0500
From: Mark F. Schultz <mschultz () siu edu>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>

Hi Declan:

Like every other IP law professor in the universe, I'm blogging on 
Grokster (as a guest at Eric
Goldman's Technology and Marketing blog).  I thought that you and your 
readers might be among those
who would be particularly interested in a take on what happens to 
BitTorrent.  Bottom line:  Bram
Cohen and BitTorrent as a technology are fine, sites like Suprnova are not.

http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2005/06/what_happens_to.htm

Excerpt:

What Happens to BitTorrent After Grokster?

By Mark Schultz, Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois School of Law

BitTorrent and its creator, Bram Cohen, should be just fine. Some 
services that use BitTorrent to
promote infringing file sharing for commercial gain, like the now 
defunct Suprnova.org, are most
likely in trouble. The difference in results points to one fortunate 
aspect of today’s decision. The
Court’s holding focuses on “bad actors,” not “bad technology.” In that 
respect the safe harbor of
Sony still stands. (Whether the prospect of having to defend oneself as 
a “good actor” will stifle
technological development is a subject for another post or a law review 
article).


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