The Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster Ltd. "was not a disaster," says Siva Vaidhyanathan, an assistant professor of culture and communication at New York University, "but it was bad, nonetheless."
Mr. Vaidhyanathan, a scholar of intellectual property, argues that the ruling—which found that peer-to-peer networks can be held liable for their users’ copyright violations, if the networks are judged to have induced the infractions—will have no noticeable impact on illegal file swapping. But the ruling will, as some experts have speculated, have "a chilling effect on innovation," he says. (Library Journal)
For more on the Grokster decision, see an article from The Chronicle by Andrea Foster.
