Fair Use wins this time around?

[Karate Media]

Although it applies more specifically to music downloads, I though that this might be of interest to our budding lawyers and Fair Use advocates out there (and NO arguments about coffee here, 'kay?)


http://www.businessweek.com/technology/cnet/stories/998363.htm


(and here's a just-legal-enough snippet of the article. click the link to read the full story)

"Judge: File-swapping tools are legal
A federal judge in Los Angeles hands a stunning court victory to file-swapping services Streamcast and Grokster, dismissing much of the studios' lawsuits against them...

"While the ruling in no way validates the legality of downloading copyrighted music online, it would shield companies providing decentralized file-swapping software such as Gnutella from liability for the actions of people using their products."

Copyright Businessweek online, 2003

[CogoSWSDS]

Well it's about time!! Imagine the chaos that would ensue if the MPAA or RIAA were to sue Microsoft because most of the pirates use Windows as their OS on the computers they use to do the pirating with. Or it would be like suing the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) because they developed the TCP/IP protocol used for the ARPAnet that later became the internet, which facilitates this file sharing.

CogoSWSDS

[MOVIEGEEK]

It's good to see a court with some common sense.If the plaintiffs would start offering legitimate online music services then they wouldn't have to spend millions of $ on attorney fees.
This reminds me of a McDonalds lawsuit......

[WeedVender]

LOL that was a funny one movie geek...

FINALLY !
Its about damn time. There goes a blow to big companies.