MGM v. Grokster Up Close

Today the Supreme Court listened to arguments in the highly anticipated MGM v. Grokster case and we're all following the coverage and discussion.  Tim Armstrong (HLS LLM '05) attended the Supreme Court hearing, and his blog account is a must read -- Boing Boing described Armstrong's blog piece as "a stellar account of the argument, giving a good, nuanced analysis of what the lawyers and the judges were up to." Donna Wentworth of the EFF is covering the discussion of "the guy in the garage" on Copyfight. Dave Winer, former Berkman Center fellow, explains on Scripting News why the noninfringing uses of the technology tip the scale in favor of the EFF in the Grokster case.  Three weeks ago Professors Terry Fisher and Jonathan Zittrain and Berkman Center Executive Director John Palfrey submitted an amici curiae brief to the Supreme Court regarding MGM v. Grokster.  The brief urged the Court not to modify the standard it created 20 years ago in its landmark Sony-Betamax decision, which exempted from liability the distributors of technologies - in that case the VCR - that are "capable of substantial noninfringing uses" even if they are also often used for infringing purposes.