The
ruling is another victory for the entertainment industry, which has
had a string of recent victories and concessions. Just weeks ago
Kazaa settled with the music industry for $100 million.
MetaMachine was ordered to pay $30m to settle a copyright suit
earlier this month over its eDonkey and Overnet file sharing
software. Napster shut down and only the brand survived, now
fronting an authorised download site and Grokster has been shut
down by courts.
In 2003 Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that StreamCast could not be
held responsible for the actions of its software's users, a
decision that was backed by the appeals courts. Last year, though,
the Supreme Court in the US ruled that file sharing software
companies were liable for the software's use because they
encouraged or induced users to commit copyright theft.
The Supreme Court then sent the case back to Delaware and to
Wilson, who has delivered his revised judgment.
"In the record before the court, evidence of StreamCast's
unlawful intent is overwhelming," he wrote this time around in his
judgment. Granting a motion for summary judgment against
StreamCast, he said that there was evidence of "massive
infringement" on the StreamCast network.
The suit had begun in 2001 when a coalition of film studios,
music publishers and record labels sued StreamCast as part of the
MGM v Grokster case, in which many other companies were named.
After the Supreme Court ruling, which covered all the named
companies, Streamcast was the only company to continue to fight its
case. An appeal against the ruling is still possible.
RIAA chairman Mitch Bainwol said in a statement that "this court
has spoken clearly, powerfully and persuasively to the principle
that businesses based on theft will be held accountable."
