March 29: Supremes hear the Grokster case

Last summer, EFF won the landmark Grokster case, in which the Ninth Circuit court ruled that P2P systems are legal, even if some people use them illegally. The movie studios and record labels didn't like this, so they got the Supreme Court to agree to hear the case. Now there's a date for the oral arguments: March 29, 2005. In 2003, digital rights activists camped out all night on the court's steps to get in and hear Lessig argue the Eldred case. I wish I could go stay out all night for this one -- it's going to be a doozy.

Washington, DC - The US Supreme Court set the date for the oral argument in MGM v. Grokster for March 29, 2005, in Washington, DC. EFF is defending StreamCast Networks, the company behind the Morpheus peer-to-peer (P2P) software, against 28 of the world's largest entertainment companies.

The companies first brought this lawsuit against the makers of the Morpheus, Grokster, and KaZaA software products in 2001, hoping to obtain a legal precedent that would hold all technology makers responsible for the infringements committed by the users of their products. The entertainment companies lost in District Court, then lost again on appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Link