Illegal Music Downloaders Still at Risk, Say Legal Experts

Illegal Music Downloaders Still at Risk, Say Legal Experts

FindLaw.com Survey Finds Public Opposed to Lawsuits Against Downloaders

EAGAN, Minn., March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- While the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week on whether movie and recording studios can sue software companies that enable illegal sharing of music and video files, legal experts caution that whatever the outcome of the case, individuals who illegally download copyrighted material are still at risk of being sued.

In the case of M.G.M. v. Grokster, the nation's high court will soon rule whether companies such as Grokster that provide popular peer-to-peer file sharing software violate federal copyright law, or are protected by a previous Supreme Court ruling in the famous "Betamax" case that protected technologies that enable duplication of copyrighted material as long as the technologies are "capable of substantial non-infringing uses."

But no matter how the court rules, individuals who illegally download music or video may still be vulnerable to lawsuits. "It's the end user, not the software company, who is actually violating the rights of the copyright holder, such as the recording artist or movie studio," said Michael Landau, current author of the book Lindey on Entertainment, Publishing and the Arts from Thomson West, and professor of law and director of the intellectual law program at Georgia State University. "Whatever the Supreme Court decides in the Grokster case, entertainment companies will likely still be able to go after the end user, the person who is actually making the unauthorized reproduction."

Earlier this month, the Recording Industry Association of America sent "pre-subpoena" letters to officials at Princeton University and Harvard University warning that students there may have illegally shared music files. Since last September, more than 3,400 people have been sued by the recording industry for damages of up to half a million dollars each.

Public opinion is largely against lawsuits aimed at individual downloaders. A poll taken last summer by the legal Web site FindLaw.com found that a majority of Americans, fifty-six percent, say the music industry should not sue people who illegally download music off the Internet. Nearly two-thirds of those between the ages of 18 and 34 said the music industry should not sue people who illegally download music.

The Supreme Court is expected to issue its ruling in the M.G.M. v. Grokster case sometime later this year. In addition, Congress has introduced legislation that would allow artists to sue the makers of file sharing software used to illegally download music.

Consumers concerned about their rights can find analysis from legal experts; briefs filed in the Grokster case by the Motion Picture Association of America, the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball and other parties; profiles of lawyers in the case; guides to copyright, cyberspace and entertainment law; and a searchable directory on lawyers specializing in Internet and copyright law in a special section of FindLaw.com, the leading legal Web site, at: http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/lit/mpaa/index.html .

Source: FindLaw.com

CONTACT: Kyle Christensen of FindLaw.com, +1-651-687-7082,
kyle.christensen@thomson.com

Web site: http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/lit/mpaa/index.html

NOTE TO EDITORS: The national survey used a representative sample of 1,000 adults nationwide, with a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points, and was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs. Complete table of results available upon request

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