Originally published December 3 2005
Entertainment companies win victory over Grokster
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Grokster, a file-swapping software developer, has said it will halt distribution and support after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the entertainment industry. The company now plans to create a "safe and legal" service.
Grokster, a developer of file-swapping software used to trade copyrighted music and movie files, said Monday that it would halt distribution of the software and cut off support for its associated network as part of a landmark settlement with the recording industry and Hollywood studios.
Evolution of a Court Ruling Message Displayed on Grokster.com Supreme Court Opinion (June 27, 2005) The pact comes four months after the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Grokster could be held liable for copyright infringement by users of its software, a decision that delivered a decisive victory for entertainment companies, particularly music labels, which have blamed widespread digital piracy for a worldwide slump in sales.
The court decision sent the case back to a trial court, but the settlement - submitted to a federal judge in Los Angeles on Monday - averts further legal wrangling for Grokster in the four-year-old lawsuit.
Grokster also agreed to pay up to $50 million in damages, though music executives say they do not expect to collect because the software company lacks the resources to pay.
Grokster's co-defendant in the case, Streamcast Networks, the promoter of a file-sharing network known as Morpheus, has indicated it plans to keep battling the movie studios and record labels in court.
In Hong Kong on Monday, a man was sentenced to three months in jail for using an Internet file-sharing system to make three Hollywood movies available for free downloading.
More broadly, the popularity of file-sharing networks shows little sign of waning in the wake of the settlement or the earlier court decision.
The recording industry has said that its legal campaign is intended to gradually deter the entrepreneurs who run many of the biggest file-sharing networks and the advertisers that support them, all while driving music fans to authorized services like iTunes from Apple Computer, which sells songs for 99 cents each.
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