Byline: Frank Ahrens

In the wake of the Supreme Court's Grokster decision, peer-to-peer music file sharing companies are either going legit or dying off. Washington Post staff writer Frank Ahrens was online to discuss the trend. He examined the issue in an article on Saturday .

A transcript follows.

____________________

Frank Ahrens: Greetings, all.

Thanks for tuning in today.

Last week, I wrote about the changing landscape of the peer-to-peer file-trading services (P2P for short) in the months following a summer Supreme Court decision that said they are liable for the criminal activity of their users.

In lay language, that means if you download copyrighted songs without paying, not only can the music industry sue you, they can now sue whatever Web site you use--Kazaa, LimeWire, Grokster, and so on.

This is akin to the music industry persuading the federal government to shut down the original Napster back in 2001, which gave rise to these P2P networks.

So, in headline-ese, the Empire has Struck Back again.

Let's go to your questions and comments.

_______________________

washingtonpost.com: June Supreme Court Ruling Taking Toll on Music Sharing (October 1, 2005)

_______________________

Washington DC: Frank - Thank for the very informative article. I'm curious - do you think that backbone network providers should be held responsible or liable in anyway for this type of activity?

Frank Ahrens: I don't think, I'm just a reporter.

Hahaha!

I will tell you what the Supreme Court said: The P2P sites argued that they are no different than VCRs that people use to tape their favorite shows, which is covered under the concept of "fair use." Their precident was the so-called Betamax case of 1982 (I believe) when the Supreme Court said the intention of these new recording machines was not to break the law.

However, the music and movie industry argued, and the Supreme Court eventually agreed, that it's hard to thing of NON-illegal uses for P2P networks, therefore Betamax does not apply.

I think P2P networks will, in the future, have tons of non-infringing uses, but right now, they are used pretty much for swapping movies and music which generally are copyright-protected.

_______________________

Alexandria, VA: Hello,

Would you happen to know, what the price would be for file-sharing services in case P2P's go legal?

Thanks,

Frank Ahrens: I wouldn't but I could wildly speculate, so here goes.