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[FYI] Jeffrey S. Rothstein: "The Napster decision 'validates Gnutella'"
- To: debate@fitug.de
- Subject: [FYI] Jeffrey S. Rothstein: "The Napster decision 'validates Gnutella'"
- From: "Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>
- Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 18:01:03 +0100
- Comment: This message comes from the debate mailing list.
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<http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/23/technology/23CYBERLAW.html?printpa
ge=yes>
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February 23, 2001
Legal Expert Sees Napster Competitors Thriving
By CARL S. KAPLAN
By now it's sunk in that, last week, a three-judge panel of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco
branded a great many Napster users as direct copyright infringers.
That was bad news for Napster fans, to say nothing of Napster itself,
which was declared by the court to have likely violated federal
copyright laws for contributing to the infringement activities of its
fans.
But one legal observer says the federal court's decision is far from
a mortal blow to other music file-sharing systems. Indeed, he
believes there is a key aspect of the ruling that could give added
legal protection to more decentralized file-swapping Internet-based
systems, such as Gnutella and its many clones.
The Napster decision "validates Gnutella," said Jeffrey S. Rothstein,
a partner in the Chicago office of Sidley & Austin and a member of
the law firm's technology and e-commerce practice group.
[...]
A major portion of the appeals court's decision last week concerned
whether Napster unlawfully assisted and encouraged the infringement
acts of Napster users. The court found, as a preliminary matter, that
Napster had both actual and constructive knowledge that its users
exchanged copyrighted music -- one of the requirements for a finding
of contributory liability
[...]
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