Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Potentially as dangerous as patents

Author:Jeremy Bowers
Posted:8/15/2000; 1:52:50 PM
Topic:Potentially as dangerous as patents
Msg #:19733
Prev/Next:19732 / 19734

Hummer’s Napster bummer from the Economist:

'THE legal juggernaut set in motion by the recording industry to rid itself of Napster is threatening to take with it more than just the upstart firm whose software enables music fans to share each other’s CD collections free on the Internet. If, as seems likely following a hostile ruling a fortnight ago, Napster is fined for music piracy, the way could be open for action against both its investors and the developers of any software that might be used to undermine copyright.

'For now, the ruling that Napster must immediately remove all copyrighted material from its site (in effect closing the service down) is stayed until the case reaches the appeal court, from where it will almost certainly move to the Supreme Court. If, as expected, things go badly for Napster in the higher courts, litigious music and film companies will most likely turn their sights on the venture-capital firm that backed Napster, Hummer Winblad, and the programmers who made Napster possible.'

This is even worse then patents in some ways... this could stifle innovation twice (once stifled because programmers may be held liable for corporate developments, twice because that corporation may not have investor money to pay that developer with) with anything relating to copyrights, at all.

No longer do you just worry about what has already been filed for a patent that you don't know about (which at least has concrete existance), now you need to worry about whether someone might hit you with a contributory copyright infringement suit someday... which basically affects everybody who moves, processes, or stores data with copyrights on it.

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