Against Intellectual Monopoly

there are
files available to share legally, the software-producing companies cannot
possibly be liable for illegal use of their legally distributed products. To us,
as you may expect, the latter is the only position that makes sense; but that is
another story. The Supreme Court did not satisfy either request, and instead
ruled as follows: "We hold that one who distributes a device with the object
of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or
other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting
acts of infringement by third parties."17
    Meaning, if you can prove, in a lower court, that if Grokster and the other
software producers are intentionally distributing their products to foster
infringements of the law, then they are liable. When you put it this way, the
Supreme Court ruling sounds reasonable and balanced. Unfortunately, the
law never works that way. Mark Cuban, a media entrepreneur and owner of
the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, summarizes the problem as follows:
    It won't be a good daywhen high school entrepreneurs have to get a fairness opinion
from a technology oriented law firm to confirm that big music or movie studios
won't 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.... It
doesn't matter that the RIAA has been wrong about innovations and the perceived
threat to their industry, EVERY SINGLE TIME. Itjust matters that they can spend more
then everyone else on lawyers. That's 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 isn't the big content
companies against the technology companies. This is the big content companies,
against me - Mark Cuban and my little content company. It's about our ability to
use future innovations to compete [versus] their ability to use the courts to shut
down our ability to compete. It's that simple.18

    Some time has elapsed since we first wrote this part of the book. When
visiting the URL http://www.grokster.com/ in November 2006, we found
the following text on the tombstone of the now-defunct company:
    The United States Supreme Court unanimously confirmed that using this service
to trade copyrighted material is illegal. Copying copyrighted motion picture and
music files using unauthorized peer-to-peer services is illegal and is prosecuted by
copyright owners. There are legal services for downloading music and movies. This
service is not one of them.
    YOUR IP ADDRESS is 70.238.155.121 AND HAS BEEN LOGGED. Don't think you can't
get caught. You are not anonymous.
    In the meantime, please visit www.respectcopyrights.com and www.musicunited.
org to learn more about copyright.
    Scary, don't you think? Ali, the Wikipedia entry on Grokster has also been
updated. It now reads:
    Grokster Ltd. was a privately owned software company based in Nevis, West Indies
rendered extinct by a United States Supreme Court ruling against its mainstay
product, a peer-to-peer file sharing program for computers running the Microsoft
Windows operating system. The product was similar in look and feel to Kazaa which
is marketed by Sharman Networks.... Grokster closed its site on November 7, 2005.
A note on its home page cited a United States Supreme Court ruling that copying
copyrighted material using "unauthorized peer-to-peer services is illegal" and while
legal download services exist, "this service is not one of them." The site also claims to
log the visitor's IP address but that is just to scare you. The companyhas said it hoped
to establish a "legal" service soon, referencing a new URL: www.grokster3g.com.19
    Have an interesting experience - try that URL.
Freedom of Expression
    The DMCA is not just a threat to economic prosperity and creativity; it
is also a threat to our freedom. The best illustration is the recent case
of Diebold. Diebold makes computerized voting machines, now used in
various local, state, and national elections. Unfortunately, it appears from
internal corporate documents that these machines are