Will the Supreme Court justices see the light in Grokster?
The big news of the past day, of course, was Tuesday’s Supreme Court hearing in MGM v. Grokster. In past months, I’ve expressed alarm at the Supreme Court’s willingness to wade into these waters, possibly upsetting the 1984 Betamax ruling — called the Magna Carta of the digital age — that set the table for a generation of technological innovation. Perhaps I was too harsh in my expectation that the Court would almost automatically side with the large entertainment industry interests at the expense of millions of users at the grassroots level. We’ll see — a decision is expected around June. Here’s some press coverage: Wired News: File Sharing Has Supreme Moment. San Jose Mercury News: Justices wary of barring tools for file-sharing. EFF docs in the case. Seth Finkelstein’s Infothought: meta-Grokster. Ernest Miller: Remind Me of the Reason for the DMCA Again? And here: New York Times Editorial Board Blows It on Grokster. And here: More Editorial Board Takes on Grokster. And all through
