“The Supreme Court handed movie studios and record labels a sweeping victory against file-swapping, ruling Monday that peer-to-peer companies such as Grokster could be held responsible for the copyright piracy on their networks,” John Borland reports for CNET News. “In a unanimous decision, the justices ruled companies that build businesses with the active intent of encouraging copyright infringement should be held liable for their customers’ illegal actions.”
Earlier today, before the decision, “Piper Jaffray said iTunes, the online music-download service from Apple Computer, ‘would be the primary beneficiary’ in its category of a Supreme Court decision against peer-to-peer, or P2P, file sharing. Piper Jaffray noted that iTunes has a 70% market share in online music. ‘We believe a decision against P2P file sharing would be positive for online content distribution companies, as a slowdown in P2P activity would likely lead to a pick-up in sales for legitimate online content providers,'” Forbes reports.
Full article here.