WASHINGTON-CTIA has joined with several trade associations and telecommunications companies in opposing the entertainment industry’s effort to create what it calls “a secondary copyright liability.”
“The judicial expansion of secondary copyright liability advocated by petitioners is precisely the wrong approach. It is simply impossible for the U.S. Supreme Court to craft a rule that will target only a particular business model connected with a specific technology without the threat that the new doctrine will be used by copyright owners-reputable or otherwise-to impose judicially created duties on legitimate businesses and technologies,” reads a brief filed late Tuesday by CTIA, the U.S. Telecom Association, the U.S. Internet Industry Association, AT&T Corp., BellSouth Corp., MCI Inc., Savvis Communications Corp., SBC Internet Services Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.
The Supreme Court will hear oral argument March 29 in the case of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster Ltd.
CTIA’s friend of the court brief was filed on the side of Grokster, a peer-to-peer software provider.
The movie industry, after seeing the downloading that occurred using peer-to-peer software in the music industry, is concerned this could spill into other forms of entertainment.
CTIA argues that Congress, not the courts, should decide what is a violation of copyright law.
