27 March 2005

If Grokster loses, technological innovation will be the domain of big corporations only

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban announces he's going to take on 28 of the largest entertainment companies, by providing financing for the legal effort to defend Grokster in MGM v. Grokster, a landmark case that will be heard by the Supreme Court of the United States on Tuesday, 29 March 2005.
It wont be a good day when high school entrepreneurs have to get a fairness opinion from a technology oriented law firm to confirm that big music or movie studios wont sue you because they can come up with an angle that makes a judge believe the technology might impact the music business. It will be a sad day when American corporations start to hold their US digital innovations and inventions overseas to protect them from the RIAA, moving important jobs overseas with them.

Thats what is ahead of us if Grokster loses. Thats what happens if the RIAA is able to convince the Supreme Court of the USA that rather than the truth, which is , Software doesnt steal content, people steal content, they convince them that if it can impact the music business, it should be outlawed because somehow it will. It doesnt matter that the RIAA has been wrong about innovations and the perceived threat to their industry, EVERY SINGLE TIME. It just matters that they can spend more then everyone else on lawyers. Thats not the way it should be. So , the real reason of this blog. To let everyone know that the EFF and others came to me and asked if I would finance the legal effort against MGM. I said yes. I would provide them the money they need. So now the truth has been told. This isnt the big content companies against the technology companies. This is the big content companies, against me. Mark Cuban and my little content company. Its about our ability to use future innovations to compete vs their ability to use the courts to shut down our ability to compete. its that simple.

The mainstream media is painting this case as a conflict over illegal file sharing (i.e., committing copyright infringement by downloading music and video files) but what's really at stake is a clampdown on your freedom and liberty. If Grokster loses, it would be the equivalent of holding gun manufacturers liable for murders. Any product of technology can be used for good, or for bad.

And the case could have ramifications in wake of the 1984 landmark Betamax case, which enabled the VCR to become ubiquitous.

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