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Commentary: Copyright Bandits At Large

By Gregory G. Garre
December 27, 2004

The Supreme Court will soon decide whether to hear one of the most important commercial cases to reach the Court in decades. MGM v. Grokster raises a copyright challenge to the Internet-based services that enable millions of users around the world to swap digital copies of sound recordings and movies with a few clicks of a mouse. At stake is the legitimacy of our copyright system in the digital age.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit held last summer that peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing services are immune from secondary liability under the copyright laws for the millions of infringing acts committed every day by their teems of happy users. A broad coalition ' including Hollywood studios and recording companies, state governments, and international publishers ' have urged the Supreme Court to review that decision. The Court should answer their call.

Too Little Commerce

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