Shoot the messenger

Orion

hmmmm

Name withheld to protect the guilty wrote:

Popular file-sharing site WinMX.com ceased operating and the New York office of another, eDonkey.com, appeared to be closed, in the continuing legal fallout among underworld peer-to-peer music services, industry sources and users said on Wednesday.
The turmoil among file-sharing networks follows the landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in June that held anyone who distributes a device used to infringe copyright is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by others.

In the wake of the decision, the trade group Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) last week sent out "cease-and-desist" letters to seven file-sharing groups, according to Reuters.

So presumably Creative, IOMega, LQ etc are going to be sued for selling CD/DVD-writers. Let's face it - they are devices used to infringe copyright a hell of a lot more than e-Donkey is. Not to mention set-top dvd recorders - maybe the RIAA will take on Sony - they make them - and how do else do popular TV shows such as Lost (which premiered last night in the US btw ) become available on teh interweb.

This seems to be a reversal of the twin tape deck ruling 20(?) years ago where the manufacturers of a device could not be held liable for how people used that device.

theking

you can read a legal analysis of the grokster judgement referred to above
here and here

It does suggest that the items you list above are safe as they are not marketed as primarily providing copyright breaching abilities.

maidhc

I hope the Island of Vanuatu is big enough for all of them.