In August, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that peer-to-peer networks are not liable for copyright infringement because, like VCRs, they can be used for legitimate purposes. The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision by June.
Entertainment-industry trade groups like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) have complained that peer-to-peer file sharing networks enable copyright violations by allowing consumers to trade copyrighted files. "Without strong rules of the road, there will never be a level playing field for the multitude of legitimate online music services trying to do the right thing," the RIAA said in a press statement. "There are seminal issues before the Court--the future of the creative industries and legitimate Internet commerce. These are questions not about a particular technology, but the abuse of that technology by practitioners of a parasitical business model."