In an extremely well written opinion by Judge Thomas of the 9th Circuit, the appellate court found that Grokster is not liable for the peer-to-peer swapping of copyrighted songs that occurs through its file-sharing software.
In the context of this case, the software design is of great import. As we have discussed, the software at issue in Napster I and Napster II employed a centralized set of servers that maintained an index of available files. In contrast, under both StreamCast’s decentralized, Gnutella-type network and Grokster’s quasi-decentralized, supernode, KaZaa-type network, no central index is maintained. Indeed, at present, neither StreamCast nor Grokster maintains control over index files. As the district court observed, even if the Software Distributors “closed their doors and deactivated all computers within their control, users of their products could continue sharing files with little or no interruption.” Grokster I, 259 F. Supp. 2d at 1041. Therefore, we agree with the district court that the Software Distributors were entitled to partial summary judgment on the element of knowledge. [Because knowledge is a required element of contributory copyright infringement, Grokster could not be held liable.]
NOTE: This does not mean that individual users will not be held liable for copyright infringement using Grokster.
The opinion is rather short and easy to read: Opinion in PDF format. Give it a go. Update: More information from the INDUCE Act Blog.
