Stevie IS against File Sharing.

[ontheEdgeof17]

Famous folk among those filing briefs on file-sharing
By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY

An avalanche of music industry professionals, state attorneys general and educators, as well as U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, filed briefs with the Supreme Court Tuesday asking to have a controversial Internet file-sharing decision overturned.

The top court is scheduled in March to hear the case of the record labels and movie studios, vs. file-sharing companies Grokster and Morpheus. Lower courts found that users of their systems were liable for copyright infringement, but the owners weren't.

Among those who filed briefs: The Eagles, the Dixie Chicks, Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Stevie Nicks, Tom Jones and Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson.

"There is no more important case for the future of our business," said Don Henley of the Eagles. "These systems promote copyright violations on an unprecedented scale."

About 13 billion songs were available for unauthorized free trading on online swap networks in 2004, according to Internet measurement service BigChampagne. Around 200 million songs last year were sold to consumers at authorized sites such as Apple's iTunes and Yahoo's Musicmatch.

The flip side to the music and movie industry position is that overturning the Grokster case would stifle innovation.

Supporters point to the 1984 Betamax ruling, when the high court said that VCRs weren't liable for copyright infringement, a decision that ultimately paved the way for new products such as today's iPod digital music device and TiVo digital video recorder.

"Betamax established a clear legal principle," says Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association, which plans to file its own briefs next month in support of Grokster/Morpheus.

"A product is legal if it has legal uses," he says. "We're petrified of what the court could do to limit new technology."

The number of people rounded up by the studios and labels to urge the court to overturn the decision could seem daunting, but Fred von Lohmann, one of the lawyers representing Grokster, says it was no different in 1984.

"All the prominent movie stars of the day talked about how the VCR was the death of Hollywood," he says. "The court wasn't fooled then by the parochial interests of one industry, and it won't be now."

Michael Weiss, CEO of StreamCast, which owns Morpheus, said companies like his "can be part of the solution for the future of digital distribution of entertainment and is not part of the problem."