Case study:

• METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER STUDIOS INC. et al. versus GROKSTER, LTD., et al.: file sharing over peer to peer networks
  • the original lawsuit as seen from the defendants' perspective
    • 04 & 06/03 - the United States Federal District Court for the Central District of California decides in favor of the defendants
    • 08/19/04 - the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decides in favor of the defendants
  • the Supreme Court case:
    • a summary of all the briefs presented on the case, prepared by Jonathan Band (Morrison and Foerster LLP)
    • 03/29/05 - the oral arguments
    • 06/27/05 - the decision against the defendants
  • 11/07/05 - the end: Grokster terminates its service
  • an in depth documentation (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) is available from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, including comments on the final decision.
• The New York State Attorney General versus SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT: advertising disguised as programming

Topic notes

Relevant legal and regulatory documents:

• For US law: see chapter III-3: distributing digital information
• For Europe: Directive harmonizing the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights(EU 93/98/EEC), Oct 1993
• The Berne Convention, as revised in 1971, an international treaty for the protection of literary and artistic works, ratified by the US(1989),
  the index itself providing an excellent introduction to the different types of rights involved

Further Help:

• duration of copyright protection in the US: a summary by Lolly Gasaway (University of North Carolina)
• duration of copyright protection in Europe: an overview by the Project Gutenberg EU foundation,
  an offshoot of the Project Gutenberg, the oldest producer of free ebooks on the Internet (including sheet music)
• a worldwide view on copyright protection, by the Online Books Page (University of Pennsylvania)
• from the World Intellectual Property Organization, responsible for the application of the Berne Convention:
  its page on copyright and related rights

these links do not represent an endorsement of any organisation, public or private,
and no compensation has been received nor sollicited by the author for their inclusion.