The court has outlined a permanent injunction in the landmark MGM Studios v. Grokster copyright infringement case, but the case isn’t dead yet. One defendant, StreamCast Networks, Inc., owner of the Morpheus peerto- peer file sharing network, is fighting to survive despite the injunction. Its future, and likely the future of peer-to-peer networks, now hinges on the recommendation of one man, Andy Johnson-Laird, a veteran forensic software expert with anartistic streak.
This unusual situation has developed because Judge Stephen Wilson of the Federal district court in Los Angeles has decided that a special master should recommend what kind of filtering technology StreamCast must use to comply with the court’s proposed injunction and to avoid infringing the copyright of content owners. On Nov. 29, Wilson named Johnson- Laird to the job. Johnson-Laird’s recommendations could become the de facto standard for a variety of companies that want to avoid infringing the copyrights of music companies, movie studios, and other content owners. James Nguyen, the vice-chair of Foley & Lardner’s IP litigation practice, says that “a court ruling that says what is technologically sufficient has the potential to affect a lot of cases,” including Viacom’s ongoing $1 billion copyrightinfringement case against YouTube.
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