February 19, 2005
SG Requests Time at Grokster Oral Arguments
According to James DeLong, “The Solicitor General of the U.S. has petitioned the Supreme Court for
10 minutes in which to argue on behalf of the content industries, who
would cede the time from their allotment.”
Filed by Derek Slater at 4:23 pm under General news
1 Comment
The Solicitor General”s argument as outlined in his brief is not very strong. He is asking for an extension of secondary liability via common law without any statutory basis! As Prof Lessig has pointed out such an extension of liabilty should logically apply to handgun manufacturers of Saturday night specials and maybe even to motel operators when they do not monitor the use of their rooms for illicit”activities”. How about a webcam in each motel room!!
All of the Briefs supporting Petioner fail to recognize the real issue in the case, the Internet which has shifted the whole cost basis of the the copyright balance not only the access side. Production, marketing and distribution costs have been drastically lowered for producers of content. To allow the record and media companies to increase their monoply control of access while failing to adjust for substantially lower costs will result in a windfall of monoply profits for them!!!