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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (April 28, 2005)
agree: At oral argument, several asked ques- tions about how ruling for MGM might pre- vent companies from inventing products like the iPod. Owning Congress Legitimate uses evolving If the Supreme Court decides to stick with the Sony standard in Grokster, the justices will have to decide whether file-sharing services have significant, legitimate uses. While Napster’s lawyers failed to make the case in court that the service was being used by almost anyone for legal purposes, newer file- sharing technologies have started to find fully legal uses. One of the newest, and the perhaps the best developed to date, peer-to-peer pro- gram, BitTorrent, is used by many to down- load legal material. Etree runs a site (http://bt.etree.org) that offers BitTorrent downloads of concert recordings of “taper- friendly” bands who have explicitly given fans permission to record their performances and to freely distribute the tapes. With the BitTorrent software and a high-speed connection, you can go to Etree and download a super-high quality recording of a 1978 Grateful Dead concert at Mac Court in just an hour or two. “Digital rights” activist groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation are strong advocates for the legality of file-sharing pro- grams. Fred von Lohmann, an EFF attorney, fears that if Grokster is decided in favor of the movie studios, the result will be “the installa- tion of Hollywood lawyers in every technolo- gy company’s engineering meetings” and a serious harm to innovation. The justices might Professor Keith Aoki, the UO School of Law’s intellectual property expert, thinks that However, he isn’t optimistic about the cur- rent and future state of intellectual property. “Congress is in the pocket of the recording industry,” he says. “In 1998, they passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which was an incredibly far-reaching extension of copy- right laws. And now, just a few years later, the recording and entertainment industries are demanding even stronger copyright protec- Law student Alex Frix got in trouble for downloading. the Supreme Court might actually vote to uphold the Ninth Circuit, allowing Grokster and others to keep distributing their software. He notes that even some of the most conservative justices have shown a preference for the free market over strong intellectual property rights. DANIEL EPPS started watching.” Now she watches the show weekly when it airs, enlarging the market for UPN’s advertisers. Are entertainment compa- nies are now making the same mistake they made 21 years ago? tions, and they may get them.” (Just days after Aoki’s interview, Congress passed stiff crimi- nal penalties for those who leak pre-release versions of records over the Internet.) Aoki notes that recently a proposal to allow companies to send signals “frying” the hard drives of copyright infringers was given serious consideration in the U.S. House. He warns that even if the Supreme Court rules that the creators of non-centralized, peer-to- peer file sharing services are not liable under current laws, it’s possible that Congress will simply create a new kind of liability. “Inducement liability,” as it has been named by its proponents, would make inventors of programs like Grokster and KaZaA responsi- ble for the acts of those who use their inven- tions, even if indirect and unintended. Congress’ willingness to create new kinds of liability at the request of the entertainment industry is troubling . Through numerous incre- mental changes, American copyright law has quietly and quickly undergone radical exten- sion over the last few decades. Copyrights, which at one point in American history lasted only 28 years, have been repeatedly increased by Congress; as of 1998, they can last as much as the life of the author plus 95 years. Critics point out that for the most part the beneficiaries of such long copyright exten- sions are almost all corporations who own wildly successful franchises. They are quick to point out that Disney was about to face the copyright expiration of some of the earliest Mickey Mouse cartoons before the passage of the most recent extension, for which the com- pany lobbied aggressively. Many think Congress’ concern over downloading has more to do with corporate welfare than a sense of justice. “If we’re going to punish compa- nies who make products with illegal or dan- gerous uses, why isn’t Congress going after the gun industry, the alcohol industry or the car industry as well?” Aoki asks. LOCAL TALK RADIO IS BACK! AM Edition Weekdays 6-9am Liz Kelly Host Dave Wooten Host Shelley Gaske with Local News MOTHER’S DAY SALE Afternoon Nancy Stapp Edition Weekdays 3-6 Join us for intelligent conversation on topics important to you and your community. 20% off all jewelry 10% off everything through 5/31/05 Read us online at: eugeneweekly.com Silver Jewelry Hand-made Journals Clothing • Incense Prayer Flags Buddha Statues Thangka Paintings Music CD’s Meditation Items APRIL 28 2005 13
