Courts Reach Different Conclusions in P2P Cases
Apr 7, 2008
"Same day, two federal courts, two different rulings on 'making available.'"
That's how Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), described a pair of contradictory court decisions last week in cases involving copyrighted music and peer-to-peer file sharing.
In one case, Elektra v. Barker, a New York judge ruled that an individual could be found liable for copyright infringement just by making a file available for sharing -- even if no one actually downloads it. Nearby in a Boston court room, a federal judge reached the opposite conclusion in the London-Sire v. Doe case; EFF filed an amicus brief in the latter case.
As Mr. von Lohmann writes, it's likely that the issue will be the subject of more court cases given the disagreement between the two rulings. Check out his post for more details.
Incidentally, Mr. von Lohmann recently participated in a breakout session at this year's Tech Policy Summit titled Copyright in a Converged World with UCLA professor Doug Lichtman, Copyright Alliance executive director Patrick Ross and TiVo general counsel Matt Zinn. Lawyer/blogger Denise Howell recounted their discussion at ZDNet.
Tags:
copyright, EFF, Fred von Lohmann, P2P, Tech Policy Summit
