Verrilli said that Grokster and other file-sharing networks are profiting from the illegal acts of their users by selling advertising on their sites.
Beyond their legal arguments, the studios and record labels hope that key supporters might help sway the court. Among those who spoke at yesterday's RIAA/MPAA news conference was former solicitor general Theodore B. Olson, who filed arguments on behalf of a citizen group that defends property rights.
_____Story Archive_____
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U.S. Asks High Court to Curb File Swapping (The Washington Post, Jan 25, 2005)
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Tech Firms to Seek Legal Protection From Pirating (The Washington Post, Jan 24, 2005)
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High Court To Weigh File Sharing (The Washington Post, Dec 11, 2004)
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Appeals Court Ruling Favors File-Sharing (The Washington Post, Aug 20, 2004)
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File-Swap Sites Not Infringing, Judge Says (The Washington Post, Apr 26, 2003)
_____From FindLaw_____
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Special Coverage Documents filed in the MPAA's P2P file-sharing litigation against Grokster and StreamCast Networks are collected here.
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File-sharing networks "have engaged in, for profit, and on a massive and widespread basis, the greatest ongoing theft of intellectual property that the world has ever seen," Olson said.
Also lending their names to the industry's filing were high-profile attorneys Kenneth W. Starr, who was the special prosecutor investigating the activities of President Bill Clinton, and David E. Kendall, who represented Clinton at his impeachment hearings.
The filing also cites Jane C. Ginsburg, a prominent copyright-law scholar who wrote an article that supports the industry's view of the case and who is the daughter of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Fred von Lohmann, senior counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has handled much of the legal work for Grokster in the case, said the entertainment industry wants consumers to have to ask permission for how they use music and videos.
He said that if the Supreme Court adopts a standard of whether this kind of product or service is primarily used for illegal purposes, devices such as compact disc burners and the TiVo digital television recorder could be at risk.
Several major technology companies share that concern, and they have urged the court to keep the Sony standard intact but to examine whether Grokster's conduct in promoting its service has encouraged copyright infringement.
Marty Lafferty, head of the Distributed Computing Industry Association, of which Grokster is a member, said that the "peer-to-peer genie is out of the bottle" and would not be stopped by an adverse Supreme Court ruling.
Instead, he said, the entertainment industry needs to stop boycotting file-sharing services and instead work with them on creating a licensing scheme that will make the services a legal and lucrative distribution method for all concerned.
The case is MGM Studios Inc., et al v. Grokster Ltd., et al, No. 04-480.
