Grokster acquired by Sony

Grokster (the company, not the court decision) has been acquired by Sony, inc. and will be rereleased under the name Mashboxx, a legitimate, "label-friendly" p2p service. Apparently, the service will continue to allow general file sharing, and will also have an iTunes-like storefront. It is interesting to see how, if general sharing is allowed, the new service will prevent infringing shares. It certainly seems like illegal p2p is on the decline.

Belated Update

Well, as my first year of law school continues, I'm finding myself unable to update this blog with the regularity I had anticipated. That being said, no one reads it anyway, so I suppose that doesn't matter.

Grok news has, believe it or not, continued in my absence. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has been using the Grokster decision as a basis for sending C&D (Cease and Decist) letters to various p2p client distributors. ZDNet has more.

In the theme of this blog ...

Being that this blog is meant to outline the Grokster case (not simply general legal news), and because the title of this blog embraces a general ban on sharing, I will NOT tell you that John Roberts, Supreme Court Justice nominee, has had his appointment upgraded to that of Chief Justice in the wake of Rehnquist's death.

Rehnquist dies, KaZaA under fire

Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist died Saturday evening, overtaken by thyroid cancer. The justice made important marks on the legal community during his 33-year tenure, not the least of which involved the case from which this blog was spawned. Grokster was, in fact, the last decision of which Renquist was a part.

In other Grok news, p2p program KaZaA has been ordered by an Australian court to alter its program to ward off illegal file sharing activity. ZDnet states that the modification, or even downfall of the KaZaA system will not prevent illegal file shares due to the decentralized nature of the system.