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Supreme Court Adopts IEEE-USA’s Balanced
Position in
MGM vs. Grokster Electronic File-Sharing Case:
Protects Innovation, While Limiting Illegal
Activities
WASHINGTON (27 June 2005) – The Supreme Court,
in a unanimous decision Monday in the MGM vs.
Grokster electronic file-sharing case, adopted
the active inducement standard and technology
protection IEEE-USA proposed in its January
amicus curiae brief (www.ieeeusa.org/policy/POLICY/2005/MGMvGrokster.pdf).
The Court ruled that Internet file-sharing
services cannot be held liable for publishing a
technology having non-infringing uses unless the
publisher has actively induced its customers to
use software for improper purposes.
Andrew Greenberg, chair of the IEEE-USA
Intellectual Property Committee, said the Court
adopted the thrust of IEEE-USA’s brief.
"The Supreme Court recognized that a balance
must be struck between the interests of artists
in their work and the interests of the public to
have access to dynamic and innovative
technologies for obtaining and enjoying those
works,” Greenberg said. “An active inducement
test captures the idea that liability for
technologists should not be based on the conduct
of others, but on what the technologists
intentionally did to lead users to use the
technology for ill."
In delivering the opinion of the Court (http://wid.ap.org/scotus/pdf/04-480P.ZO.pdf),
Justice David Souter wrote that, “… one that
distributes a device with the object of
promoting its use to infringe copyright, as
shown by clear expression of other affirmative
steps taken to foster infringement, is liable
for the resulting acts of infringement by third
parties. We are, of course, mindful of the need
to keep from trenching on regular commerce or
discouraging the development of technologies
with lawful and unlawful potential. … The
inducement rule … premises liability on
purposeful, culpable expressions and conduct,
and thus does nothing to compromise legitimate
commerce or discourage innovation having a
lawful promise.”
“By punishing the active inducement of illegal
behavior, the court protects intellectual
property and preserves the incentive to
innovate,” IEEE-USA President-Elect Ralph
Wyndrum said.
The opinion vacates the judgment of the Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled last
August in favor of Grokster and StreamCast, and
remands the case “for further proceedings
consistent with this opinion.”
IEEE-USA was the first organization to propose
an active inducement standard. Three other
friend-of-the-court briefs supported this idea.
For more information on IEEE-USA’s contributions
to inducement legislation and its participation
in this case, go to
www.ieeeusa.org/policy/issues/INDUCE.
IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of the IEEE.
It was created in 1973 to advance the public
good and promote the careers and public-policy
interests of the more than 220,000 technology
professionals who are U.S. members of the IEEE.
The IEEE is the world's largest technical
professional society. For more information, go
to
www.ieeeusa.org.
IEEE-USA
1828 L Street, N.W., Suite 1202
Washington, DC 20036-5104
Phone: 202-785-0017, Fax: 202-785-0835
Last Update:
15 May 2007
Staff Contact: Pender M. McCarter,
p.mccarter@ieee.org
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