Copyright Infringement for Bundling with P2P File Sharing Software?

October 16, 2005 · by · in Adware/Spyware, Copyright, Derivative Liability

By Eric Goldman

Suzi of Spyware Confidential/Spyware Warrior relayed the following question to me:

“Saw your recent posting on the Direct Revenue/KaZaA partnership. Many have praised this move despite the fact the Supreme Court has ruled that these P2P networks are illegal. I can see why people are praising Direct Revenue for getting out of the distribution networks they are in, but I’m just surprised to see no one question the legality of distributing with KaZaA. Any thoughts?”

You can read my lengthy response about tertiary copyright infringement at her Spyware Confidential blog.

One correction: a commenter at Suzi’s blog notes that the tertiary liability lawsuit named other defendants beyond Bertelsmann, including Hummer Winblad, Hank Barry and John Hummer. I didn’t get into this detail in my write-up but the commenter is correct–thanks for the clarification.