Top Internet IP Cases of 2005 (So Far)

For the past two years, John Ottaviani and I have compiled a list of the top Internet IP cases of the year. (Despite the attribution, John O. did all the heavy drafting work). See our lists for 2003 and 2004….

Operation Site Down–The Latest Warez Group Bust (vintage 2005)

The FBI conducted another major International bust of warez groups involving 90 searches and four arrests. The DOJ press release. AG Gonzales’ statement. The AP story. This is only the latest of a string of major busts of warez trading…

Shocking Revelations About BitTorrent

By Mark Schultz Ernest Miller, Ed Felten, and I (clearly the lesser blogger of the three) have been blogging about what happens to BitTorrent after Grokster. Ernie Miller has discovered a circa 2001 cybermanifesto in which BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen…

More on BitTorrent and Grokster

Mark Schultz Ernest Miller notes that I should address the new trackerless BitTorrent and BitTorrent search created by Cohen. He was right. So, here goes. As Wired News reported a few weeks back, Bram Cohen and fellow developers released two…

What Happens to BitTorrent After Grokster?

By Mark Schultz, Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois School of Law Thanks to Eric for the chance to guest blog here. And congratulations to Eric for predicting the decision right. He called it about a month ago–I was there, under a…

Grokster Ruling Commentary

In this post, I’ll summarize some of the various blog reactions to Grokster that I’ve come across. You should start with my own, of course! For another good roundup (with some overlap to this post), see Ernest Miller’s The Importance…

Grokster Supreme Court Ruling

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd, Case No. 04-480. (US Supreme Court June 27, 2005). What Happened The Supreme Court unanimously reversed the Ninth Circuit’s upholding of summary judgment for the defendants, sending the case back to the lower courts…

Is Copyright Infringement “Theft”?

The BBC reports on a study that the British do not equate downloading copyright material with theft. The British have specifically rejected one of the standard analogies that downloading copyrighted music is just like shoplifting a CD of the music…

Copyright Office to Have “Public Roundtables” About Orphan Works

The Copyright Office has announced that it will have public roundtables to discuss orphan works in DC July 26-27 and Berkeley August 2. This is interesting because, after receiving almost 900 submissions regarding orphan works already, I would have thought…

Grokster Press Releases

The Grokster media frenzy has reached a fever pitch. Not only is the war of words taking over the mainstream press, but we’re seeing a bubble of activity in the press release databases. A couple of examples. Orrick’s Press Release…