LEGAL AND LOVING IT

Jan 1, 2006 12:00 PM, C. Deane

Last summer, the Supreme Court ruled that file-sharing services may be held responsible for copyright violations if they intended for customers to use software primarily to swap songs and movies illegally. Highly anticipated (and somewhat of an extension of a prior ruling), the impact of this decision is not necessarily earth-shattering; however, it won't be until late 2006 until the industry can look back and assess the impact. When the dust has settled, you'll likely see that peer-to-peer (P2P) services such as Grokster, eDonkey, Limewire, BearShare and others have succeeded in finding ways to operate without breaking the law.

It wasn't long after the ruling that the RIAA gave these networks one of two options: Operate legally or stop altogether. With thousands of users going to these sites on a daily basis, it is a good guess that at least a few will figure out how to do what they do by the books. There are at least a few models you will see play out in 2006: record companies purchasing the sites or networks (Sony's Mashboxx buying Grokster, for example), digital music services purchasing the sites or the services figuring out a way to launch their own legitimate P2P services. One thing is clear: It's getting harder to get away with operating an unlawful P2P in the U.S., and the RIAA is not wasting any time trying to put an end to it.

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