RSSMorpheus Loses in Court, May Appeal
By Ed Oswald | Published September 29, 2006, 12:40 PM
File sharing network Morpheus lost a crucial case earlier this week, calling into question the service's future and handing the entertainment industry a major victory. A U.S. District Judge ruled that StreamCast, the service's parent company, had aided copyright infringement on a massive scale.
Judge Stephen Wilson also said the company did little to block the trading of copyrighted material, and built its business on the trading of such files. StreamCast had been fighting the entertainment industry since 2001, and was the only P2P service to continue litigation after the Supreme Court's Grokster ruling.
"The court's ruling is disappointing," the company said in a statement. "StreamCast will consider its options, including appealing the decision. In the meantime, Morpheus will continue to discourage users from infringing upon copyrighted works."
The Recording Industry Association of America lauded the ruling, saying the court's ruling clearly indicates that P2P networks are responsible for the actions of their members. However, RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol said the ruling does not make up for years of illegal activity.
"When decisions like this one make clear that businesses based on theft won't be tolerated, the winners are the music industry, who can invest more in bringing great music to the public, and fans who will have access to a wider array of exciting legal options," Bainwol said.
Only one major P2P network still exists from the heyday of the technology back in the early part of this decade, LimeWire. However, it may be in danger of closing too: it was sued by the RIAA in August.
However, in an interesting twist, LimeWire has countersued, claiming the RIAA was using its copyrights to bully companies it does not approve of out of the Internet distribution business.
Well First of all they did away with cd singles (in stores) now there groups putting out full cds with 2 hits and filler songs cause they want to save the good songs for future cds? thats a crime in its self to many one hit wonders to buy a full cd, and whats the diffrence between copying a tape (double cassette) or recording off radio, they get there money if the whole cd is good enough, they still have platinum and mega platinum sold right? RIAA needs shut down.
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SUMMARY
To summarize: The issue resolves down to
Democrats, rebellious teenagers, and criminal
file-sharers, vs. the RIAA and all law-abiding
citizens.
The bad guys essentially want to legalize theft.
While the rest of us know that the sanctity of
private property is the foundation of civilization.
So -on one hand- there's the usual criminal types
who want to steal what you and others have.
And -on the other hand- normal decent citizens
trying to protect their property against thieving
creeps.
...
The Computer Rodent
...
"Thou shall
not steal !"
...
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|Surprise, surprise, there IS political reasoning behind your propaganda. Seriously, even you must be laughing at your implication: "The Democrats are criminals."
Your posts are getting more absurd every day.
So when will there be a government agency like the RIAA to sue the NRA? Or perhaps the gun manufacturers? After all, clearly they're doing nothing to stop people using guns in an illegal manner. Surely they have the capability, and therefore they are liable for what their consumers do with their guns.
I suppose it's a greater crime to copy $1 song than to kill someone with a 9mm?
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|no but i think it is a greater crime to charge millions of people $1 per song than it is to kill that one bas****!
and the day "the computer rodent" started talking smack in third person automatically put his status up for forum jester. or jackass, either one.
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|This is all total bulls*** and the RIAA is gonna pay for this in the long run.
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|I agree the RIAA is VERY BAD. But in the instance of going after these companies they are correct and the supreme court agrees as well.
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|oh come on, the riaa need to make money somehow now that them and the mpaa just lost the case for the price gauging ring....
screw em all.
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|No surprises here at all. RIAA has more lobbyists with more funding than any P2P vendor or group. They don't stand a chance. Money is king. Want to sway the court? Sway your congressman or senator. Swaying costs money.
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|So you think a company should exist with a practice of using copyrighted material and selling it for a profit?
Here, I completely agree with the supremes and think this IS the correct tactic for the RIAA. I disagree with the RIAA going after individuals trading songs, since they bought them and have limited distribution rights the RIAA seems to easily forget about.
These companies BTW didn't even pay for the original CD, but make money off them - completely wrong.
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"hey PC rat,
go eat a goat
...like our
stupid president
and how he is a
fraud"
...
Obviously this debate is between Democrats (who
favor computer crime) vs. the Humans.
...
The Computer Rodent
...
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|or maybe the humans on this forum vs. the sniveling little dork who resides in his mothers basement and cannot bare the light of day(pc rat)
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|"..the winners are the music industry, who can invest more in bringing great music to the public.."
LOL - Like Britney Spears?
Anyways, I am glad any COMPANY that is making money from sharing copyrighted material should be shut down permanently. These companies are no better than the Chinese government - which condones this kinda thing. I, however, have a much harder time with invidual lawsuits.
PC Rat - The only thing I have against your comments is that the INTERNET as a whole could be considered a medium for illegal transmission, therefore the government (Al Gore specifically - lol) could be infringing on everyone's rights, if everything was based on what you say. Simply the supremes ruled a company can't make money on copyrighted material, I agree, let Morpheus burn.
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|hey PC rat, go eat a goat, no one cares what you think. fact remains there are more important things to worry about...like our stupid president and how he is a fraud..and like your wife, who cheats on you, but will never confess.
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|Very well said ragejed. I think all democrates are about as smart and well-spoken as you. Thanks for not breaking the mold. Keep it up.
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"for instance older
people or classic
music lovers"
...
Oh, yeah, right. And marijuana should be legal
so people can make hemp s***s and belts !
Facts are: There's some things that ought to be
illegal because their primary and intrinsic use
is to commit crimes. Like sawed-off shotguns.
Private ownership of nuclear warheads ain't going
to be legalized so kids can construct atomic bombs
for their high school science projects.
There's no elderly music lovers on P2P. It's guys
like you stealing copyrighted music !
Which is why the courts have consistently held
that file-sharing networks have the principle
purpose of criminal enterprise.
...
The Computer Rodent
...
"Share a file /
Go to jail !"
...
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|I am myself one of them. I only defend it is the one who accuses who has to prove the crime. Nobody is guilty beforehand. Would you like yourself to be considered guilty in advance? It is not songs what is at stake. I am not a music downloader. It is freedom against corporate dictatorship.
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|I am not the only one who thinks this way. Please read at the beginning of this page "LimeWire has countersued, claiming the RIAA was using its copyrights to bully companies."
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|...
"I am myself
one of them"
...
One of them file-sharers stealing copyrighted
material ? You ought to be in prison ...NOT on
BetaNews !
...
"Nobody is
guilty beforehand"
...
~All~ criminals are guilty at every stage of their
crime.
How do you think you could be convicted of a crime
if you didn't have prior guilt for that crime ?
The police arrest, handcuff, transport, and put in
jail a criminal. How can that be if "nobody is guilty
beforehand" ? They'd be picking on innocent people !
...
"Would you like
yourself to be
considered guilty
in advance?"
...
If the PC Rat shared files he ~would~ be "guilty
in advance".
Listen, a criminal conviction doesn't make someone
guilty ...it CONFIRMS that they're guilty.
Criminals are still guilty even if they never get
caught and brought to justice !
Important point.
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The Computer Rodent
...
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|...
"I am not the only
one who thinks this
way. Please read at
the beginning of
this page 'LimeWire
has countersued,
claiming the RIAA
was using its
copyrights to bully
companies'..."
...
Ha ! The old Napster tried the ~same~ argument
in court.
Criminals are always filing frivolous appeals which
stand no chance of success. This is one of 'em.
...
The Computer Rodent
...
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|Please read all: "I am not a music downloader". Of course, even if I don't think like you, I would always defend your right to think different. It is not any kind of attack against you. I only say what I think because I believe I have the right to express my ideas.
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"I am not a
music downloader"
...
You wrote: "I am myself one of them". So what do
you steal if you don't steal music ?
Movies ?
And if you do not steal music or movies, what do
you steal ?
Or, do you download dirty pictures ? Child pornography ?
Terrorist literature ?
...
"even if I don't
think like you,
I would always
defend your right
to think different"
...
Let's not confuse issues. This ain't about
philosophical inquiry, it's about committing
crimes.
Bro. Rat has not advocated criminal enterprises.
So, thank you anyway, he does NOT need you to
defend any supposed "right" you think he might
have.
And -speaking of "rights"- there isn't any 'right
to commit a crime' !
...
The Computer Rodent
...
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|Criminals to jail. I write for the pleasure of exposing what I think. "I am myself
one of them" makes a reference to my prior statement: "many users who never download protected material but only old music and songa, for instance older people or classic music lovers". I never download copyrighted material if I know there is a copyright. I don't expose myself to be sued for this: I have my money to buy the records, and I buy what I need. But I defend the right to download NOT COPYRIGHTED material.
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|"Oh, yeah, right. And marijuana should be legal
so people can make hemp s***s and belts !"
Well if it was legal for medicinal purposes, the biproducts could be used to make s***s, belts, or paper... don't even go there... comparing theft to pot is just retarded.
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|"Facts are: There's some things that ought to be
illegal because their primary and intrinsic use
is to commit crimes. Like sawed-off shotguns."
Damn straight. Like any kind of gun. There are very few 'legitimate' uses for guns, and those farmers that need them can apply for a permit. So why aren't we targetting the NRA? They're killing people, not just costing multi-billion dollar corporations a few dollars.
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|the original reason it was made illegal was for political and capitalistic reasons, not because it could be used as a drug.
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|...
"many users who
never download
protected material
but only old music
and songa, for
instance older
people or classic
music lovers"
...
The PC Rodent has always said that those who
can prove in court beyond a shadow of a doubt
(with videographic evidence) that they aren't
stealing copyrighted material might be released
from pre-trial detention with only a warning.
...
The Computer Rodent
...
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|So guilty until proven innocent, is it?
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|Damn, this sucks, i use Morpheus (5.2.3) and its really good!
Sad to see all the heavy weight champs in the P2P world slowly going down, although its not the end for Morpheus.
You can still download it from www.morpheus.com and still use the program.
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"The RIAA and MPAA
says it's illegal
to download music
and movies"
...
No, they're saying it's illegal to ~illegally~
D/L music and movies.
And, the courts have fully concurred.
...
The Computer Rodent
...
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|OK, totally clear. The crime is not having a knife, but killing with it. There are thousands of non protected songs and programs whose rights are not in the hands of these people, and many users who never download protected material but only old music and songa, for instance older people or classic music lovers.
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|You say "the winners are the music industry". I believe rhat this Ralentless Investigation on Alien Activities is not done for the benefit of music. I'd rather think it is simply that investments and profits are in danger. If music industry disappears you may be sure that music will never die and Internet sale will never go away. In this moment music dealers are the only ones who earn big money, certainly never the authors or the musicians.
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|The RIAA and MPAA says it's illegal to download music and movies. Yet at the same time, NBC strikes a deal with Viiv to do just that. I would certainly call this a "massive scale".
The AA's are punishing people for making use of what certain companies give while giving the ok for other companies. It's even ok for Walmart to give people downloads.
There is only one differance between Itunes, Morpheus, Kazaa, etc. and that is the particular servers they use. Downloading is downloading. If you download it from here or download it from there....your still downloading. If it were only as simple as the fact that Kazaa never charged for downloading. If it were about that, the companies would be the only ones getting sued.
Oh, the insanity of it all.
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"File sharing network
Morpheus lost a crucial
case... calling into
question the service's
future and handing the
entertainment industry
a major victory"
...
Ha ! One by one the file sharing gangsters are
going down.
...
The Computer Rodent
...
"Share a file /
Go to jail !"
...
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|P2P has shown people how easy it is to download, it has long been done by the people who know how via newsgroups, IRC, warez sites and recently torrents. All this will do is force them underground to the old school tools if they want to continue to download.
The next big thing will have to be closing the torrent sites, and looking though the logs to target the main uploaders and hard core downloaders. They are trying to get this info from ISP's but I think taking down the servers will be there prefered option. Of course they will just pop back up again just a well known one did recently called thepiratebay.
When they take down torrents, the big warez sites and IRC then they can claim a victory, until then they are just scratching the surface.
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|Then emule...
Then soulseek...
The list goes on.
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|The courts are wrong, and money from the RIAA
to congress is the reason the courts agree.
It's a dangerous precident to make in a case such as this.....
Why are Radio Stations not being shutdown for allowing me to copy from Radio to cassette or IPOD. TV Stations allowing me to tape TV Shows or Movies?
Ironic that Sony will make DVD movies and Music songs, will complain about the piracy, and then sell me the DVD-RW and the blank media to copy them anyway.
Record companies now have a legit way to make money from MP3 and downloads, through Yahoo music or Itunes both companies are making money from a revenue stream that was not there 5 years back, Microsoft, Apple and others are also making more money from the players, IPODS and accessories.
Microsoft should be sued, for allowing P2P software to be used on PC's then, and if copyrighted material was being facilitated by Edonkey or other P2P makers, than obviously the operating system for which facilitates the P2P sofware should also be banned.
It's a joke... And the RIAA will destroy themselves eventually......
Already it's been the RIAA that has pushed the technology from P2P to torrents, and made my life easy and my downloaded faster and harder to shutdown. So thanks to the RIAA movies, and music are faster and easier than P2P ever was. Congratulations to the RIAA for closing P2P and making a bigger problems with torrents.
Now it's worse with DRM enabled MP3 devices from Apple and MS that will stop me from using the song on more than one piece of equipment....
So now i will go back to downloading illegal MP3's rather than supporting Apple/MS and music companies legitmately....
Well done to the RIAA......
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